Of Team Riki: At Hogwarts
by DarqueDeath4444
Summary: Hired by Voldemort, Team Riki consisting of Itachi, Sakura, Neji and Shikamaru attend Hogwarts as spies and as weapons for the coming war. However, as they watch Harry Potter and his friends struggle against a seemingly unbeatable force, they are reminded of Konoha. This was supposed to be a mission, nothing emotional, but they begin to doubt if they are on the right side.
1. Chapter 1: Of the Mission and the Client

**So, here is our first ever crossover fic!**

 **This is a side story to 'Of Tales Now and Long Ago', but we've tried to write it so that it can stand alone.**

 **It's set during the timeskip between NARUTO and NARUTO SHIPPUDEN, and in the book Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the 6th book of the Harry Potter series.**

 **Chapter ONE**

It had been a boringly normal day. Haruno Sakura was sitting on a tree branch at one of the Uchiha training grounds, polishing a kunai. Uchiha Itachi was sitting on another branch a little above, reading a scroll on some theory or another.

Sakura was making a mental list with her Inner on the importance of chakra control. Being a part of the Haruno clan, a clan that had hailed from Kirigakure before a massacre, Sakura was gifted with excellent chakra control and an Inner Spirit, a second being within her mind that protected her from harm.

What no one knew was that the Haruno clan had been created for the sole purpose of find the Otsutsuki heir. Once Sakura had been born, Otsutsuki Toneri had massacred the clan in order to keep any secrets from leaking out.

In other words, once Sakura had been born, the Otsutsuki saw no further use of the Haruno clan.

After the massacre, Toneri had taken her to train her in the Otsutsuki ways and techniques, before leaving her for Konoha to find. It was all a part of the grand plan of the Otsutsuki revival. She currently resided in the Uchiha compound.

The Uchiha clan had also been killed off by Toneri, leaving only Itachi and Sasuke.

Sakura tried to dwell on her mixed feelings about that.

 _'Chakra control is the base of nearly all techniques.'_ Her Inner said.

'And it's a necessity for Medical chakra.' Sakura added. She's know all about it, as she had been trained by Tsunade, who currently ran the hospital.

'It also helps with mundane tasks such as tree climbing, water walking, and even for just a burst of speed.'

They went on like that for a while, until a Chunin boy flickered into the clearing with a message from the Hokage, Namikaze Minato.

"Hokage-sama requests for you in his office."

Sakura paused her hand before frowning. She glanced at Itachi, who had looked up from his reading. "Who?" She asked. She pointed at herself, then at the Uchiha, just to make it clear.

The Chunin sent to call them looked unnerved to be in the same area as the stoic Uchiha prodigy and the rumored-to-be crazy Haruno Sakura.

"Both of you." The Chunin managed to get out.

Itachi nodded to dismiss him while Sakura put down the kunai she had been sharpening. She stood up.

 _'What do you think he wants?'_ Her Inner asked.

Sakura mentally shrugged.

"Shall we?" Itachi asked.

Sakura grinned and nodded as they took their time to walk out onto the streets. There, Itachi jumped onto the roof closest to them and Sakura followed.

They made it to the Hokage tower, where they saw Nara Shikamaru leaning against the wall by the entrance. He looked up when they approached."You've been called too. How troublesome."

"This confirms that we are going to go on a mission." They turned around to see Hyuuga Neji standing there.

Their team, Team Riki had been put together shortly after Sasuke's departure for Orochimaru. The only ones that knew that it was actually a secret mission assigned by the Hokage was Itachi, Sakura, Naruto and Shikamaru.

They were more of a fill-in team than anything, called upon for mission and other jobs that required tremendous power and skill.

Itachi nodded briskly. "Though I think you are correct, I think we should get going"

They made their way into the building, automatically falling into line with Itachi in the lead. The lady at the desk greeted them and confirmed their appointment. She sent them through, and Itachi knocked on the door to the Hokage's office, entering when a 'come in' was heard.

Minato smiled and greeted them. They all bowed back politely.

"Now, as I'm sure you've already worked out, I have a mission for you." He handed Itachi the scroll but didn't dismiss them."I know the scroll mentions everything you need to know, but I would actually like to talk through this with you."

* * *

"A different dimension..."

Now, this was why Minato liked this team. Though they were all slightly not normal, they were prodigies, and they were the best at what they did. They were calm and collected when needed.

He could imagine what Naruto would have been like, and it scared him.

It was a good thing his son was out on a training trip with Jiraiya. If he had been here, he would have demanded to go, and wouldn't have listened to anything.

Then again, if you were told that there were several other dimensions apart from their own and that you were going to be sent to one of these dimensions for for an indefinite amount of time, normal people would freak. They would stare, then laugh and ask if he was drunk However, this team in front of him just stared at him for a second before Itachi nodded on behalf of the team. "Understood, Hokage-sama. When are we to leave?"

Minato quickly composed himself. He was the Hokage. He would freak out later. "You are to leave tomorrow. The details, as well as your means of travel will be noted down on the scroll. Your client will be meeting you in the other...dimension." It still felt weird to say it.

Itachi nodded, and they all dipped their heads before they left.

Minato sighed after they were gone. Maybe all four of them were from some parallel universe. Yes, that had to be it. That was why they were all so strong and composed. Minato nodded to himself.

* * *

As usual, they gathered at the Uchiha compound. It was something they had done during the planning of their very first mission, and it had stuck. Sakura got Mirai, one of the Otsutsuki clan's puppets that ran on Puppet Cursing Spheres, to serve them all tea. Mirai was more of a caretaker than a tool of battle. She could see Toneri within the way the puppet moved gracefully, for this certain puppet was channeled by Toneri.

They settled down, and just stared at the mission scroll for a while.

"A different dimension." Shikamaru finally said. "This is so troublesome."

 _'It's a bit like the moon.'_

Sakura blinked at her Inner's voice.

 _'The dimension bridge between the Earth and the Moon. That's a different dimension. So is the moon, in a way.'_ There was a pause. _'Toneri and the Gatekeeper have the dimension bridge set so that it takes everyone who goes through to the Moon. Unsafe, maybe, but that's what the Gatekeeper is for.'_

'So, if we shift the destination of the dimension bridge...'

 _'If only a little shift, it might take us to Snow country. If a big shift, who know's where we'll fly?'_

"Sakura?"

Sakura blinked at Itachi's voice. All three of her teammates were looking at her, well concealed worry in their eyes.

"You okay?" Shikamaru asked.

Sakura nodded. "Yeah. Just thinking."

"You don't seem too surprised about this different dimension thing." Shikamaru said.

Sakura frowned. "You don't either."

Neji smirked. "Just on the outside." He admitted. "If Hokage-sama weren't so serious about it, I may have suspected a prank." He paused. "Well, he is Naruto's father."

Shikamaru huffed.

Itachi nodded, then turned back to the mission scroll and began to read it out.

* * *

The next day, at dawn, Team Riki met up at the village gates. Sakura and Itachi were the first to arrive. Neji came not a minute later, and Shikamaru wandered towards them not too long after.

They nodded at the guards at the village gates then traveled out. They went on for a while, before Itachi stopped at the edge of the trees. He pulled out the mission scroll and they gathered around.

"So, we just...say this word?" Sakura asked.

Neji nodded. "It seems so, yes."

"What kind of name is that?" Shikamaru asked, reading it over against and again. "Can someone say it?"

"Vor...vorudeemoruto..." Sakura trailed off. "This is so lame."

"Vorudemorut." Shikamaru tried.

"Uh..."

"Voldeemort." Neji muttered.

Itachi bit down on his tongue, refusing to say anything.

"Voldemort?" Shikamaru said, suddenly a group of dudes wearing black hoods appeared around them.

As stated on the mission scroll, Itachi shoved the scroll in the face of closest man, showing him the picture of some mark.

The man who appeared to be the leader looked at it, and spoke to the guy beside him, before nodding. He pulled out something wrapped in newspapers, then turned to Team Riki and mimicked grabbing it.

Itachi stared unblinkingly at him and the guy tried again. He pretended to rip the paper away, then grabbed the wrapped object.

"Uh..." Sakura glanced between the men.

"Grab the shoe as soon as the paper is off." Itachi ordered. The team nodded.

The leader dude tore the paper away, and before they could blink, the shinobi were in front of him, and hand on the shoe.

A second later, a tugging feeling started at their stomachs. It felt like they were being sucked into something, before they found themselves...sort of flying.

Sakura wondered if she should run chakra through her hand to attach herself to the shoe, but decided against it. What if this was like a miniature version of the dimension bridge?

* * *

Dinner was being served at the Malfoy manor.

Voldemort was sipping on a cup of tea when there was a knock at the main door.

Narcissa Malfoy looked up, sighed, then went towards the door, coming back a few seconds later with a group of snatchers and four teenagers dressed strangely.

Voldemort stood up as they approached.

"Who are these people, my lord?" Bellatrix Lestrage asked, glaring at the four teenagers with distrust. All four of them had blank faces, their expression and their eyes betraying nothing. They calmly looked around at all the Death Eaters currently casually gathering around them.

Voldemort smiled. "Just a little...outside help."

"Aren't they a little...young?" Narcissa asked.

Voldemort shrugged.

The only female, a girl with pink hair and green eyes, turned to the boy slightly older than the others and said something.

The boy nodded, and pulled out the scroll. He handed it to Voldemort, who took it and checked the mark. He then stuck his hand into his pocket, and all four tensed. He drew out four pendants and placed it on the table.

The oldest boy said something, and the boy with white eyes stepped forwards. The veins popped out beside his eyes, and he stared at the pendants for a while before saying something.

The oldest stepped forward and picked one up. He then clasped it around his neck.

He blinked a few times, before turning to his teammates and nodding. The others followed.

"Now, why don't we get down to the details?" Voldemort asked.

The oldest boy shifted just slightly, the only sign of his surprise, before nodding briskly. "I take that you are...Voldemort."

Narcissa's eyes widened while Bellatrix looked ready to snap at the no show of respect, but Voldemort just chuckled and nodded.

"And you are?"

The boy dipped his head. "Uchiha Itachi."

The girl went next. "Haruno Sakura."

Then white-eyes. "Hyuuga Neji."

And finally, the pineapple-hair. "Nara Shikamaru."

Voldemort indicated towards the pendants. "Those allow you understand our language." He said. "And it also shows my mark to all Death Eaters."

Voldemort indicated towards the seats at the dinner table. Itachi and Neji sat on one side, while Shikamaru and Sakura sat on the other.

He then introduced Bellatrix and Narcissa.

Itachi nodded in greeting, before turning back to Voldemort. "The information on the mission scroll was very vague."

Voldemort nodded. "It is simple, really." He gestured with his hand, summoning a newspaper image of Harry Potter. "The Chosen One." He hissed.

He quickly composed himself, though. "All you need to do is infiltrate Hogwarts, the wrenched Wizarding School the boy attends. You are to relay any and all information you pick up." He drew himself up, releasing the aura of a ruler, something which reminded Sakura of Minato.

"I already have a spy within the walls of Hogwarts." He said. "However, it may be useful to create fake connections with the boy."

"You will be given access to the Library here at the manor. Nearly all the information you will need can be found there. Should you have any other questions, Narcissa will answer them."

The woman bowed.

"You seem older than the rest. How old are you exactly?" Voldemort asked, looking at Itachi.

Itachi frowned. "Eighteen." He said. "These two-" He gestured towards Shikamaru and Sakura "-are thirteen, while he is fourteen." He gestured to Neji.

"Your age might be a problem."

Itachi briskly nodded. "I shall do something about it later." He'd cast a henge on himself before going out.

Voldemort nodded. "Very well."

Itachi dipped his head.

"Very well." Voldemort spared each member of Team Riki a glance. "However, note that I will kill Harry Potter myself."

* * *

"Are you sure they can be trusted, my lord?" Bellatrix asked.

The shinobi had been dismissed. Narcissa had gotten an elf to show them to the guest rooms, where they would be staying.

"Are you doubting me, Bella?" Voldemort asked.

"Of course not, my lord." Bellatrix was quick to reply. "I was just-"

Voldemort blinked. "Those four can be considered mercenaries." He said. "They will obey me, not out of loyalty, but of their own interests." He smiled. "Which doesn't matter too much, as long as they obey me."

* * *

"I have sent an owl to Dumbledore telling him about these four." Narcissa reported. "The story is that they are transfer students from the Wizarding School over in Japan." She said. "Their relationship is that they are the children of purebloods over the sea, and I happen to have a friend who wanted to send them over. I took in his son and his friends." She gestured to the shinobi who were sitting there patiently.

"Pure blood?" Shikamaru asked.

Narcissa blinked, as if she had just noticed at the shinobi were there.

"A person with a pure lineage. A person with no Muggle ancestors." Sakura said. "A muggle is a person who possesses no skills of magic. A muggle-born is a wizard who's parents are both strictly non-magical." She paused. "A pure blood is a clan member, and a muggle is a civilian born. A muggle-born is someone in our career who comes from a civilian family."

"And how would you know that?" Voldemort asked, looking slightly interested.

"I spent last night in the library." Sakura said. "These pendants are really useful, by the way." If they hadn't helped her translate the words as it came into her brain, she wouldn't have been able to read anything.

"I see." Voldemort nodded at Narcissa, wordlessly ordering her to continue.

"Though he had given permission for them to attend, he would like to meet them first." Narcissa continued. "However, he is skilled in Legilimency, if nothing else."

"Legilimency?" Neji asked.

"It's a spell that allows one to read minds." Narcissa said.

"What happened if we don't go?" Sakura asked.

Narcissa glanced at her dismissively. "He will suspect something."

"Do we all have to go?" Shikamaru asked.

"I quote 'I would like to meet these children.'"

"Well, nothing about all of us going." Shikamaru turned to Itachi.

"Why don't you and Sakura go? We don't know how this 'Legilimency' works, but Sakura's Inner and your Sharingan abilities may be able to block it."

Itachi nodded at Shikamaru, then turned back to Voldemort. "Are there any other things we must take care of?"

"Book shopping." Voldemort said. "Narcissa, if would please..."

"Of course, my lord." The woman nodded, then turned briskly the shinobi. "Draco must get his things as well. We'll go tomorrow. Everything you need can be gathered at Diagon Alley."

* * *

Before they headed to Diagon Alley, Itachi and Sakura went with Narcissa for the arranged meeting with this Dumbledore. Voldemort, who just happened to be there when they were leaving, looked with interest at the pair they had decided on, but didn't comment.

Sakura eyed Voldemort, reminded of Orochimaru's snake form.

Both the Uchiha and the Haruno had met people like Voldemort before. They were never just there.

* * *

Sakura and Itachi inspected the man known as Dumbledore, who was also like a 'principle' of sorts.

"Hello." The man smiled at them, his eyes more sparkly than what was normal.

Narcissa had left to wait outside.

Sakura and Itachi dipped their head politely. Sakura curiously shot the man's right hand a split second look. His hand was black and looked...dead. She quickly turned to face Dumbledore.

"Hello, professor Dumbledore." Itachi began. "We are very grateful that you have accepted us into your academy."

Dumbledore smiled kindly. "You are transfer students from Japan, yes?"

Itachi nodded, hearing the unspoken request to elaborate. "Our guardian thought that it would be good for us to experience a different magic society. Our friend's father happened to be friends with the Malfoys, and they were kind enough to take us in for a while."

Dumbledore nodded and leaned closer.

"I have been told that there are 4 of you?"

Sakura stepped forward. "There are." She said, then added. "But we didn't know you wanted to see all four of us. If you want, we could come back with them or-"

Dumbledore smiled and raised his hand, Sakura going quiet instantly. "Do not fret."

Sakura blinked, before a look of confusion marred her face.

Itachi took over before Sakura could say anything. "We really are grateful, professor."

"School starts in three days. Have you been able to gather everything you need?"

Itachi nodded. "Mrs. Malfoy will be taking us to Diagon Alley later today."

"Well, then I really shouldn't be keeping you here." Dumbledore nodded.

He handed them 4 envelopes and sent them on their way.

* * *

"Mother-Who're they?"

Sakura looked up from the book she had borrowed from the library and saw a boy around their age glowering at them. She noticed that his eyes lingered on their lockets, and noted that this boy must be a Death Eater.

Itachi and Neji, who had both been perched on the edge of the couch, stood up warningly.

Shikamaru opened one eye lazily, and glanced at the boy.

Sakura peeked over her book, narrowing her eyes.

"Draco dear." Narcissa smiled at the boy. "There four are the lord's guest." She said. "They are attending Hogwarts this year, and they will be accompanying us to Diagon alley."

Draco tensed at the words 'Lord's guests'. "But who are they?"

Team Riki shared a quick look before Itachi nodded. "Itachi. "

"Neji."

"Sakura."

"Shikamaru."

The introduced themselves one by one.

"Draco." The boy said.

"Nice to meet you, Dragon." Sakura smiled, and the boy quickly looked away.

"When are we leaving?" He mumbled.

Narcissa had a oddly warm look on her face. "Let's head out now, shall we?" She ushered them towards the fireplace, then handed everyone a handful of floo powder.

"Floo powder." Sakura turned to Neji and Shikamaru. "Invented in the 13th century by Ignatia Wildsmith. A glittery, silver powder used by witches and wizards to travel through the Floo Network. The Network connects most wizarding households and buildings."

"You sound like that annoying Granger girl." Draco blurted out. He then quickly glanced at his mother.

"Granger girl?"

"An annoying Mudblood." He said.

"Mudblood?" Neji repeated.

"A rude term for Muggle-born." Sakura told him.

"She's a know it all." Draco said with contempt. "And she's an attention hogger."

"Sound's like Naruto." Neji said. "Attention hogger."

"But he isn't a know it all." Shikamaru argued.

"He doesn't know anything half the time." Neji agreed.

"But he's strong." Sakura chimed in. "Strong enough that I probably wouldn't be able to flatten him in one blow."

"Yes, because everything is comparable to your strength." Shikamaru muttered.

"Course it is."

Itachi sighed, and turned to the Malfoys. "I apologize for their rudeness."

At his words, the arguing three turned back to Narcissa. "My apologies." Neji murmured.

Sakura and Shikamaru both dipped their heads.

Narcissa offered them a split second smile and waved her hand. "Let's just head out now, yes?" She explained how to use the floo powder, and one by one, they flooed out of the Manor.

* * *

"Whoa." Sakura glanced around, wanting to look at everything. "This is..."

"Impressive." Neji offered. "There seem to be a lot of people." He moved to the right to avoid walking into a boy.

"Itachi. You should have cast a henge, or something. I don't want to die. Death by fan girl seems kind of stupid." Sakura huffed.

Indeed, Itachi's looks were attracting attention from everywhere.

"What's a 'henge'?" Draco asked.

"A henge is like...a transformation spell." Sakura said.

"A glamour?" Draco asked.

Sakura frowned. "I think."

"And you should wear a blindfold." Sakura told Neji. "You're eyes are cool, I think, but it's probably very unusual here." She then turned to Shikamaru. "And you're the pineapple of our group."

"Then you're the strawberry." He muttered. "You're pink hair and green eyes are attracting as much attention as any of us." He paused. "Besides, wearing a blindfold then walking around like you aren't wearing one might attract more attention."

"I think it's your clothing." Draco said. "It's weird."

Sakura looked at him in a 'It's not our fault you're dressed weird' kind of way.

Draco watched their interaction, clearly not sure what to think. Narcissa hid it better, but it was obvious that she was thinking along the same likes.

They entered a store called 'Madam Malkin's Robes for all occasions', which was quickly revealed to be, as mentioned, a robe store.

Sakura glanced around the store in unconcealed horror. "We have to wear these?"

Draco shot her a weird look. "Duh."

"It constricts movement, and looks way too uncomfortable." Sakura inspected one of the robes hanging around. Itachi grunted in agreement.

Draco went first. He stood up on the platform while Madam Malkins fitted him with his robes. Sakura hovered around the shop, pointing things out to her Inner. Her Inner made a few snarky comments and they giggled together.

The four Shinobi noticed the group of people approaching the store way before anyone else. Sakura skipped over to the door just as it opened, revealing the very boy who was their target.

Harry Potter jumped back when he came face to face with Sakura the second he stepped into the store.

The redhead stopped behind Harry and looked curiously at Sakura. She swiftly glanced over the boy's shoulder and noted several other people, all watching her. She opened her mouth, but someone beat her to it.

"If you're wondering what the smell is, a Mudblood just walked in." Draco announced from behind them. He dramatically turned to Sakura. And the walking carrot is a Blood-traitor." He added, so that he could be heard.

"I don't think there's any need for language like that!" Madam Malkin interrupted. "And I don't want wands drawn in my shop either!" She added. Sakura turned around to see both Harry and the redhead with their wands drawn.

A girl, who was standing slightly behind the two, tried to stop them. "No, don't. It's not worth it. "

"Yeah, like you'd dare do magic out of school." Draco sneered. "Who blacked your eye, Granger? I want to send them flowers."

"That's quite enough!" Madam Malkin said, her tone sharp. She turned to Narcissa. "Madam, please-"

Narcissa Malfoy stalked out from behind the clothes rack.

"Put those away." Her tone was cold as she glared down at Harry and the redhead. "If you attack my son again, I shall ensure that it is the last thing you ever do."

"Really?" Harry shot back. "Going to get a few Death Eater pals to do us in, are you?"

Madam Malkin gasped at the name. Sakura narrowed her eyes just a little. Itachi casually moved up to her, a questioning look in his eyes.

"It's basically the followers of...our client." Sakura said. "It might not be smart to voice his name out loud." She added.

Everyone paused and turned to look at them hints of curiosity in their eyes, but the shinobi ignored them. Neji and Shikamaru gathered around them in a formation they had gotten used to over the missions which they had teamed together.

Madam Malkins seemed like the first to remember the situation around them. "Really, you shouldn't accuse... dangerous thing to say... wands away, please!"

Harry did not lower his wand.

Narcissa smiled a cruel smile. "I see that being Dumbledore's favorite has given you a false sense of security, Harry Potter. However, even Dumbledore won't be able to protect you forever."

Harry mockingly looked around. "Wow... look at that... he's not here now! So why not have a go? I'm sure they can find you a double cell with your husband in Azkaban."

"Azkaban is like a prison of this dimension." Sakura supplied quietly.

"Don't you dare talk to my mother like that, Potter!" Draco snarled.

"It's all right, Draco." Narcissa said casually. "I expect Potter will be reunited with dear Sirius before I am reunited with Lucius."

Harry raised his wand higher.

"A fight?" Sakura asked, her eyes gleaming.

Itachi put a restraining hand on her shoulder. Sakura pouted. Harry Potter and his two friends were shooting suspicious glances at them.

"And who are you?" The redhead was the first to asked.

"It's common courtesy to give your own name before you ask someone else's." Sakura and Neji said at the same time. They glanced at each other. Sakura giggled while Neji let a smirk slip through his mask.

Redhead narrowed his eyes. "I've never seen you before. You seem too old to be first years, though. What are you doing, hanging around with the Malfoys?"

Draco bristled.

"I don't think I want these anymore." Draco said suddenly. He slipped out of his robes and threw them at Madam Malkins' feet.

"You're right." Narcissa shot the Harry Potter crew a contemptuous glance. "Now I know the kind of scum served here... We'll do better elsewhere."

"Come on, you four." Draco called over his shoulder. He followed his mother out the store.

The moment he was gone, Sakura whirled around to face Harry Potter and his friends. "So you're the Mudblood?" She asked the girl.

Harry instantly opened his mouth, but Sakura pushed on. "Or do you prefer the term Muggle Born? This Hermione Granger often mentioned?"

Hermione looked at her suspiciously. "What do you want?"

Sakura frowned. "You have bad history with the Dragon?"

Hermione huffed, seeming to understand Sakura's use of language. "He's a rude little brat, that one."

Sakura looked thoughtful.

"Who are you anyways?" Ron repeated. "And don't give me the courtesy crap."

Neji narrowed his eyes, but Itachi beat him to speaking. "Sakura."

The girl instantly stopped the leaking out of her Killer Intent, which she had begun to release bit by bit the moment the Harry Potter gang had entered the store.

"We mustn't keep Mrs. Malfoy waiting." The Uchiha said.

"Hey-"

"I'm Hermione Granger, but you already seem to know that." Hermione interrupted her friend. She pointed at her friends in turn. "This is Ron Weasley, and this is Harry Potter."

They looked like they were waiting for something, but no one reacted. Sakura glanced at Itachi, who gave her a subtle nod.

"I'm Sakura Haruno. This is Uchiha Tachi, Nara Shika and Hyuuga Neji." She grinned.

Shikamaru quickly fixed their names.

"Those are...unusual names." Harry muttered.

"We come from Japan. Transfer students. My parents knew the Malfoys, and they agreed to take us in for a while. We'll be starting this year." Shikamaru said.

"And what is your relationship with the Malfoys?" Ron butted in. "They don't just anyone. Are you purebloods?"

Sakura glanced at her teammates. "Uh..."

"Where we come from, the society is divided in slightly different ways." Neji said.

"Really?" Hermione asked, instantly curious.

Shikamaru was the first to reach a conclusion. "We're all purebloods." He confirmed.

Hermione stepped back just a little. "O-oh."

Sakura ignored the girl's shift in favor of looking towards the entrance of the store. "Here comes the Dragon."

On cue, Draco roughly shoved the door open. He glared over at the four and sneered at the Harry Potter crew. "Come on. Stop wasting your time talking to them."

He then slammed the door shut again.

"He's like Sasuke after Naruto dumped ramen on him." Sakura murmured.

Shikamaru coughed, trying to hide his laugh.

"It was nice meeting you, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger." Itachi nodded at the three. "However, we must get going. Perhaps another time."

Harry and Hermione offered them small smiles while Ron looked at them distrustfully.

Itachi held the door open for his teammates, and they left the store.

* * *

"What took you so long?" Draco asked. "You shouldn't hang out with people like them."

Sakura shrugged. "We were jut creating connections. Know thy enemy."

* * *

"These robes are so heavy." Shikamaru complained.

"It restricts a lot of movement." Itachi agreed.

"You don't wear robes back at where you come from?" Draco asked, face scrunched up.

Sakura shook her head. "Our techniques require more movement compared to your wand waving."

Worded like that, it sounded kind of silly.

* * *

"You can pick a familiar here." Draco said. "You can choose between a cat, a frog or an owl." He spoke as if he were above all of them, and it made Sakura want to punt him in the face.

"Sadly, I don't have a Toad summoning contract." Sakura muttered, thinking of Naruto. Neji grunted.

"I have a different...pet bird." Sakura told Draco. "Does it matter too much? From what you said, you can bring a cat or a frog or a owl."

* * *

"That's all the books you'll need." Draco said smugly, for some unknown reason.

"We need a wand and a broom stick?" Sakura frowned.

'What would you do with a broom stick?'

Sakura shrugged

"You need to get a wand here." Draco continued on in his superior tone. "Ollivanders is said to be the best around."

They entered the store, and was greeted by a white haired man. He gave Narcissa and Draco an once over, before turning to the Shinobi. "You look too old to be first years, but I've definitely not seen you before."

"They're transfers." Narcissa told him briskly.

"And I guess they need wands?" Ollivander asked. "Well, come on, then." He indicated for Itachi to come closer. "Which is your wand arm, boy?"

Itachi blinked. "I'm ambidextrous." He said.

Ollivander blinked back. "Well, which one-"

Itachi raised his right arm. A measuring tape flew up to him and took measurements. Ollivander vanished into the back of the store, coming back with a box.

"Blackthorn and Unicorn hair. Twelve inches. Slightly bendy." Itachi took it and stared at it.

"Go on, wave it."

Itachi waved it, stiffening when a flower exploded. He placed the wand back onto the table.

"Maybe not." Ollivander held out another one. "Vine and Dragon Heartstring. Thirteen inches and a half. Brittle."

Itachi gave it a wave, and a chair in the corner folded in on itself.

Ollivander gave him another one. "Cypress and Phoenix feather. Exactly fifteen inches. For the self sacrificing." Sakura snickered. Itachi sighed in her direction and took it. He gave it a wave. Fire red bubbles burst from the tip, floating around the Uchiha. They vanished in a burst of red glitter.

"That's your wand, boy." Ollivander smiled, then turned to Shikamaru. "You next. Which is your wand arm?"

"I'm ambidextrous too. We all are." Still, Shikamaru raised his right arm and waited as the measuring tape took measurements.

"Willow and Unicorn hair. Twelve inches." Shikamaru waved it, muttering "troublesome", just before a flying book exploded its page in his face.

"Alder and Phoenix feather. Nine inches and a quarter."

Shikamaru placed the wand back onto the table with forced calmness, trying to get rid of the water that had been dumped on him, courtesy of the shattered flower pot.

"Oak and Dragon Heartstring. Eleven inches. Rigid." This time, Shikamaru actually bothered to duck as a quill came to life, coming for his head.

Ollivander shot him a sympathetic look and gave him another one. "Try this one. Walnut and Dragon Heartstring. Ten inches and a third. For the Intelligent." Shikamaru waved it, and was met by black glitter to his face. A light breeze picked up.

"I thought so." Ollivander turned to Neji next.

"Ash and Unicorn hair. Nine inches. Quite brittle." Neji waved it, whipping around when all the windows shattered. Ollivander shook his head, passing Neji another wand.

"Hornbeam and Unicorn hair. Thirteen inches exactly. For those with a single, pure passion. Very loyal."

Neji waved it, and was instantly surrounded by white glitter shaped like butterflies. Neji watched with concealed fascination.

"And that's that." Ollivander turned to Sakura. "And last but not least."

Sakura raised her right arm. The measuring tapes did their work, and Ollivander came back with a box. "Very interesting hair color." He walked off before Sakura could say anything. He came back with a box. "Cherry and Dragon Heartstring. Thirteen inches and a half. For those with self-control and strength of mind. Very lethal."

Sakura waved it, and was surrounded by red cherry blossoms. They floated gently around her, vanishing as they hit the ground.

"Why did she get her's in one go?" Shikamaru muttered.

"And that concludes it." Ollivander smiled at them.

Narcissa wordlessly passed Ollivander a few gold coins to pay for the wands, and she ushered them out.

The shinobi managed to bow in gratitude before they allowed themselves to be guided out of the store.

* * *

 **We tried to match the wands with the characters.**

 **-Itachi: Cypress and Phoenix feather**

 **Cypress-Usually matched with someone who would die a heroic death. This reminded us of Itachi in Canon, who cared for his village and his brother more than anything. He'd probably lay down his life for anyone in this timeline too.**

 **-Shikamaru: Walnut and Dragon Heartstring**

 **Walnut-for the highly intelligent. That was simple enough. (Also, 10 inches and a third signifies Team Ten, and how Shikamaru is a part of it. This was just something lame we had to add in.)**

 **-Neji: Hornbeam, and Unicorn hair**

 **Hornbeam-selects a owner for life, who has a single, passions, an obsession. It also refuses to do anything that does not tally with its owner's principles. Unicorn hair also bonds strongly to the first user, and it reminded us of Neji and his obsession with fate, and then with his loyalty. (Also, Neji's hair reminded us of Unicorn hair.)**

 **-Sakura: Cherry and Dragon Heartstring**

 **Cherry-This was also kind of simple. Also, apparently in Japan, those with Cherry wands have high prestige. The combination of Cherry and Dragon Heartstring can only be controlled by people with self-control and mental strength, which we associated to Inner.**

* * *

 **In case you didn't know, we haven't read Harry Potter or watched the movies or anything. We looked up all the wands and wood and stuff on the wikia. Also, apparently, Ollivander was kidnapped before the sixth book started, but we wondered where all the first years got their wands, and we altered that a bit. Again, we dunno if it's important, so if it is, please tell us?**

* * *

 **If you haven't, please check out our other Naruto fanfics!**

 **Read and Review!**


	2. Chapter 2: Of the School and the Spy

_**Chapter TWO**_

"How was your little outing?"

Team Riki was greeted by Voldemort himself. Judging from the looks on the faces off all those present, it must he been rare for him to hover in one place for long.

"It was pleasant." Itachi replied. "There were many things that are different from where we come from."

"Who are you to talk so casually to my lord?" It was the Bellatrix woman. She was pointing her wand threateningly at them. Then, in the next second, it was plucked out from between her fingers by Sakura's chakra strings.

There was a shocked silence that followed, and it became apparent that no one could see the chakra strings. Sakura flicked her finger, and pulled the wand closer to herself. Draco was watching her with wide eyes.

"You! Return my-"

"Wandless magic?" Voldemort interrupted Bellatrix.

"My lord?"

It was obvious from the tone that it was a question. "Where we come from, all techniques are performed this way." Itachi said.

"Interesting." Voldemort had a certain look on his face, something akin to the look Orochimaru wore when a rare Dojutsu holder threw themselves at him.

"That is a praise these trash don't deserve, my Lord." Bellatrix insisted. "They are not even that impressive."

"You do not know that, Bella. I have been told that they are the best of the best."

"I don't understand why you require their help, my lord." It was another Death Eater that spoke up.

"Is it just me, or feel like they are just ignoring us?" Sakura grumbled.

"I assume that it is the latter." Itachi replied.

"That was a rhetorical question."

Several of the death eaters had tuned in on their conversation, and was eyeing them with obvious distrust.

"Narcissa has told me that you have already come in contact with Potter." It was another question-statement.

Itachi just nodded.

Sakura decided to voice something that had been bothering her for a while. "You aren't exactly what people consider to be the 'Good side', are you?"

Itachi simply did the Uchiha equivalent of a sigh.

The Bella woman decided to speak up again. "The-"

Sakura groaned. "Gods." She plucked Bellatrix's wand out of the air and tossed it back at her, adding a little chakra to it. Someone waved their wand, and the wand stopped before it nailed the frozen woman between the eyes.

"Che~" Sakura sighed dramatically.

"If you would excuse us, Voldemort." Itachi spoke up. "We would like to get used to used our...wands."

* * *

"Isn't this like revealing Konoha secrets?" Sakura asked. She glanced around at the curious eyes.

Shikamaru sighed. "This is so troublesome."

"Well, against the rules or not, I'm going to use this chance to beat you all up." Sakura pointed a finger at Itachi. "We've never actually spared four way."

Itachi had a ghost of smile on his face. "Looked at that way, this may be interesting."

"Technically, I wouldn't call this an official spar, as we will be using this to see how well a wand can channel Chakra." Neji said. He held up a wand, his Byakugan eyes scanning over it. "There is energy running through it. However, I can't really tell how much it's structure will affect our jutsu."

Sakura activated her own Byakugan. "It's even more layered than my chakra." She muttered. "It's like a mixture of many faint chakra signatured. This magic of theirs, it's definitely weaker than our chakra." 

Neji nodded in agreement.

"Try not to destroy the grounds too much." Itachi said.

"This is so unfair. I'm going to be flattened." Shikamaru grumbled.

They had been offered the Malfoy's back yard as a training area. They had an audience as well.

"Well, get going with it! How dare you keep the Dark Lord waiting!" Bellatrix screeched from the side. She, along with most of the Death Eaters, didn't seem that impressed.

"Bella." Voldemort turned back to the shinobi, waiting.

The four of them spread out in a square, facing each other.

Sakura kicked a stone into the air, and all four of them watched intently as it fell. The moment it hit the ground, all four of them vanished. An uneasy murmur passed through the crowd.

"Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu!" Everyone whirled around at the voice to see Itachi with his wand held out in front of him. He waved it, creating a huge fireball. Gasps were cut of when another voice spoke up.

"Suiton: Suiryuudan no jutsu!"

A huge water dragon rose out of the pond in the corner. It opened it's mouth, revealing sharp teeth. It swooped down, swallowing the fireball and bearing down on Itachi, who vanished in the huge wave of water that followed.

"Hakke Kusho!" Sakura whirled around, her arms crossed in front of her. A huge wave of chakra came her way, flinging her backwards. She slammed her heel into the ground, creating a huge fissure on the ground. She disappeared behind the cloud of dust and slabs of rock that popped up. Exclamations of shock were cut off as people fell, trying to find a stable spot on the ground.

Shikamaru streaked out from the dust, a kunai in each hand. His shadow streaked towards Neji, who saw the attacked coming from the corner of his eye. He dove into the shade of a slab of rock, and the shadow pulled away. Neji stiffened. There was a puff of smoke, and a log replaced him. A second later, a handful of kunai, courtesy of Itachi, rained down on the poor piece of wood.

Shikamaru hopped to the side when Sakura childishly stomped her foot into the ground, but wasn't able to avoid the tumor that came with it. The pinkette kicked the Nara into a slab of stone.

She raised her chakra encased arms to block Neji's attack. The Hyuuga was unfazed. He spun around, pressing Sakura backwards. Sakura back flipped over a slab of rock to catch her breath. She then body flickered out from behind her defense, bearing down on Shikamaru, who had become Neji's new victim. The two Byakugan wielders teamed up without saying anything, only to back away when Itachi launched another fireball at them.

The field was wordlessly split down the middle as temporary alliances were made.

Itachi had some sort of sparkle in his eyes, and his lips were curved upward in the smallest of smiles. He glanced down at his hand, almost as if he had forgotten about the reason for this spar, which was their wand. He lifted it.

Neji's hair was as perfect as always, not a singe strand out of place. He comfortingly brushed his shoulder against Sakura's as the two dropped into the Gentle fist stance.

Sakura was breathing heavily due to adrenaline. Her eyes held a dangerous glint, and her mouth was curved into something between a smirk and a sneer.

Shikamaru was slouched over, as if he would rather be anywhere but here. However, it was obvious to those who knew him that he was having fun.

The Nara was the first to move. He gave his wand a random wave, and his shadows snaked towards Sakura and Neji. Neji jumped upwards and Sakura shattered the earth, cutting away the shadow.

Itachi moved to cover the Nara when Sakura rained down on him with senbon. His Sharingan eyes blazed as he knocked all of the needles out of the air with a kunai. Sakura started a set of hand seals, then paused, waving her wand instead. "Kirigakure no jutsu!"

Itachi drew back slightly as Sakura expelled the mist from her mouth.

The Sharingan couldn't see through the mist, as it was made using the creator's chakra, but it couldn't stop the Byakugan.

Then again, Uchiha Itachi was a prodigy, so it probably didn't really help...but...yeah.

But sometimes, that moment of surprise was enough.

Sakura and Neji flew out of the mist, palms held out, wands long forgotten in favor of the fight.

"Hakke Kuhekisho!" A powerful wave of chakra was sent towards them.

Itachi grabbed Shikamaru, body flickering them out of the way, saving them both from becoming flattened.

"Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!" Itachi sent his controlled fireballs towards his temporary opponents, stopping them from attacking while they were off balance.

Sakura pulled out a handful of explosive tags and threw them towards the fireballs, the explosion causing them to scatter.

They had all drawn a weapon when Voldemort clapped, jolting them out of them battle.

Sakura glanced around the completely ruined backyard, pouted, and stored her weapon back into her pouch. With a wave of a few wands, the yard was back to normal. Sakura watched with fascination as every crack and burn mark restored itself. "Think, how much money would we have saved if we could do that."

Shikamaru chuckled.

Voldemort turned to Bella. "I believe that is enough proof that they will be of some use to us."

* * *

"Hermione!"

Sakura's voice, though a whisper, reached said girl's ears.

Hermione looked up, the Weasleys and Harry doing the same.

"Sakura." Hermione shot her friends uncertain looks, but waved at the pinkette.

"You've gotta hide me!" Sakura came to a skidding halt beside her. "Tachi's trying to make me wear those horribly heavy and uncomfortable robes, and Shika's just gone to sleep and he's ignoring me even though I'm in a pinch and Neji's off doing something." She took a deep breath. "And Tachi's really scary when he's angry or annoyed and he kept giving me this evil glare."

At this, Hermione unconsciously nodded. All three of the males let out frightening auras.

Sakura paused, scanning over the Weasleys looking curiously at her. "Hello?"

"This is Sakura, one of the transfers we were talking about." Harry said, quick to introduce her.

The Weasleys, minus Ron all introduced themselves.

Sakura did the same, using the story they had worked out.

She concluded that the Weasleys didn't like the Malfoys in general, but they didn't seem like bad people.

"Sakura." Sakura whirled around, arms spread. "Neji!"

The white eyed boy raised an eyebrow, and nodded at the Golden Trio. He bowed respectfully to the Weasleys, then turned back to Sakura. "Yes?"

"You have to help me! Big bad Tachi's trying to make me wear the robe thingy."

Neji sighed. "It's a requirement, Sakura." He paused. "But I do agree that they aren't very comfortable." He added.

Sakura sighed. "Fine. But you're going to head back first and make sure Tachi isn't too angry. "

"He wasn't." Neji said. "I went to him before I came to get you. He is just annoyed."

Sakura's shoulders slumped.

"Don't worry." Neji said, a faint but gentle smile on his face.

Sakura sighed, her shoulders slumping. She grabbed Neji's sleeve and turned to Hermione. "I'll be heading off to my funeral. I hope I see you at school."

Neji dragged the girl away into the crowd, where they were swallowed up by the sea of robes.

* * *

Draco dragged the four of them towards one of the compartments. Apparently, he and his friends had already found an compartment, and he had come to look for them. The moment he opened the door, some girl was instantly clinging onto Draco's arm.

Sakura coughed. "Is it just me, or is that Ino clinging onto Sasuke?"

Itachi smirked. He could feel the looks several girls were shooting into his back.

Draco ran through the names of the people there.

"Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe, Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini." She glanced at the people in their immediate vicinity. Sakura opened her mouth, and Itachi yanked her back before she could continue.

"We must get along with them, Sakura. Don't scare them away yet." Itachi said, unconcealed amusement in his eyes.

Draco shook his head, already slightly used to their dynamics.

"Guys, this is Sakura, Itachi, Neji and Shikamaru. They're the guests of...my parents, and they come from Japan." Sakura didn't miss the pointed look Draco shot a few individuals. Neither did her teammates.

"Oh?" The girl clinging onto Draco frowned at them. "What's your blood status?"

Sakura could tell that the answer to that question would be something important to these people.

"We're all pure bloods." Sakura said.

Pansy snorted, unimpressed.

Sakura's hand twitched towards the handful of explosive tags stuffed into her sleeve.

"Not on the train." Neji warned. "And not in front of other people."

Sakura sighed. "I know that."

"There might not be space for all of you." Pansy said with a sneer.

Sakura glanced around. "Maybe."

"An we just find a seat before the train starts moving? I want to sleep before we arrive."

Sakura nodded, stretching. "I spent the whole of last night in the library." She agreed.

"I actually wouldn't mind the floor."

"I would, actually, but I don't mind sticking myself onto the wall."

"Actually, I believe both the Uchiha here and I will mind." Neji grabbed both of his team mates by the back of their cloaks. "We should go find another compartment."

They left, finding a compartment not too far away. Sakura and Shikamaru were sleeping the moment they sat down. Neji and Itachi began making a few vague plans on keeping their cover. The train began to move not too soon after that.

* * *

Sakura eyed the horse-with-wings thing that also looked slightly like a skeleton.

"What's...that?" She asked Shikamaru, who shrugged.

"Who knows?"

* * *

"I will now begin the sorting." A woman, Professor Minerva Mcgonagall, announced.

The shinobi, having been taught what the sorting was by Draco before they had left, huddled at the back, unsure of what they were exactly supposed to do. A list of names followed, and one by one, first year students sat on a stool at the front, where they were sorted into one of the four groups.

"Harry Potter is missing." Sakura informed them.

Shikamaru blinked.

"He has been missing for a while." Neji said, sighing when the Nara just yawned.

"Dragon seems to have something against the boy. He and Harry Potter were messing around on the train, before Dragon left an unconscious Harry Potter behind."

"And you didn't see the need to report this?" Itachi asked.

Sakura frowned. "Dragon's relationship with Harry Potter is more of an enemy-nemesis thing rather than something that was bred by our client." Sakura said. "I didn't think it would matter too much. Besides, he was rescued by someone, and is heading here this moment."

"How much are you straining your Byakugan to see that far?" Neji asked, his own Byakugan hidden under the shadow cast over his face.

Sakura deactivated her Byakugan, then undid the simple genjutsu over her eyes. "Not much."

The last of the first years were sorted, leaving the shinobi to stand in the now obviously empty area. Everyone's eyes were on them.

"This year, we have a few guests from Mahoutokoro, the magic school in Japan."

A murmur passed through the crowd. "They will be joining us in the sixth year."

The Shinobi nodded their head respectfully at the woman.

"In honor of their traditions, they will be sorted in order of their surnames, following the Japanese alphabet. "

Professor Mcgonagall looked at the paper in front of her. "Yuchiha Aitachi." Itachi shot his teammates subtle looks. They didn't know the full extent of how this hat worked, but if it proved to be dangerous, Itachi could cast a Genjutsu on it.

Still...

"Uchiha Itachi, mam." Itachi corrected quietly.

"Oh, my apologies. Uchiha Itachi." Itachi stepped forward, and instantly, whispers began. Sakura could feel the heart shaped eyes of the girls in the room.

Itachi sat on the chair and the hat was placed on his head.

"Hey, you think that hat'll fit over your hair?" Sakura giggled, and Shikamaru whacked her halfheartedly over the head.

 **"You aren't exactly who you claim to be."**

Itachi's face showed surprise for a split second, before he masked it.

'Interesting, Interesting.'

Itachi prepared to cast a genjutsu on the hat, only for it to chuckle.

 **'I won't go sharing secrets, boy.'** The hat said. Itachi forced himself to relax, ready to cast an illusion on the had the moment it made any moves to say something.

 **'I won't say anything.'** The hat insisted. **'Now, to the sorting.'**

 **"A man of few words, I see. Very smart. A genius, I'd say. Ravenclaw would fit you. You're loyal too. And brave. Hufflepuff and Gryffindor will fit as well. However, you have a certain darkness within you. It's well suppressed, but I've seen someone like you before."**

The hat shifted. **"SLYTHERIN!"**

Groans of disappointment filled the hall while the Slytherins cheered. Itachi wandered over to the table pointed out to him. As he passed his team, he made a series of Konoha code signs so fast that none-shinobi eyes wouldn't be able to catch them, telling them everything he could about the hat within the two seconds it took him to walk past them.

Itachi just sat on the edge of the bench of the Slytherin table, ignoring all the people trying to start a conversation with him.

"Nara Shikamaru."

The Nara slowly got to his feet. He sauntered up to the front and sat down like he hadn't rested in days. The hat was placed on his head.

He slouched even lower when the hat began to speak. "How troublesome." He muttered. He wondered if this was what Sakura felt like talking to her Inner.

 **'You're smart as well, I see. Perhaps more than your over friend, strategically.'** The hat said. **'You are unlike what you appear. You are hiding something under your laziness.'** The hat straightened.

 **"If properly motivated, you'll do well in any of the houses, but I'll say..."** A pause. **"GRYFFINDOR!"**

This time, a cheer went up in the Gryffindor section. Shikamaru slouched even lower.

"Out of all the houses, I had to be sorted into the house of bravery. How troublesome."

"Haruno Sakura." Sakura skipped up to the front, receiving more than a few curious looks. She planted herself on the stool, and the hat was placed on her head.

 **'You have a second spirit in your head.'**

Sakura hummed.

 **'Interesting. Your group is full of interesting people.'**

 **"An interesting view on life. Like the other two, you are very brave, and very loyal. Perhaps it has something to do with your previous location?"**

Sakura could see the double meaning behind those words.

 **"However, I think it's safe to say that the only thing holding you back from being completely corrupted by the darkness within you is...I think you know what it is."**

Sakura's gaze darkened.

 **"Let's place you in...SLYTHERIN!"**

Slytherin cheered again. Sakura slid off the chair. She passed the hat back, and made her way over to sit next to Itachi, who scooted a little to make space for her.

"Hyuuga Neji."

The Hyuuga made his way to the front and planted himself into the stool with every ounce of grace he had been taught as a child.

 **'I guess it does have to do with your career.'** The hat murmured. **'All brave, smart and loyal. However I think you'll be more easier to sort than the others. You have an impressive amount of loyalty within you, but ever more, you are brave."**

 **"You'll do well in Hufflepuff, for you are very loyal. However, this aspect of you overrules that. I'd say...GRYFFINDOR!"**

Shikamaru sighed, moving aside to let his teammate sit. Neji sat down to the cheering of his housemates.

* * *

"The target is back." Sakura murmured, careful not to say his name. Draco was sitting close to them, and he would most likely notice if his name was brought up, even if it was in a Japanese accent.

It was a good thing that the four of them had been split with both sides having a Byakugan.

Itachi nodded. He glanced over at Shikamaru and Neji, and received a nod. They had noticed too.

The boy's entrance caused the whole hall to erupt into chattering. People shot him curious looks as he marched towards his seat. Sakura turned to look at the man that had accompanied him in. She noted the way he walked with a straight, tense back, and how he looked like he was keeping his eyes on everything and everyone at once.

* * *

Sakura and Itachi ate very little, not used to the food littering the table around them. They could see many of the students stuffing themselves, but they knew the dangers of being too full. They drank some soup, a few cups of water, and ate some bread, unwilling to touch anything else.

Dumbledore stood up at the front, and all the happy chattering going on immediately stopped.

"The very best of evenings to you!" Dumbledore spread his arms, smiling.

There were gasps of shock and surprise as people caught sight of his hand.

Dumbledore casually covered it with the sleeve of his robe. "Don't worry." He smiled. "Now, to our new students, welcome, to our old students, welcome back! Another year full of magical education awaits you!'

Itachi gently nudged Sakura to catch her attention. Sakura turned to Itachi, and followed his gaze. Sakura realized that the man that had accompanied Harry into the room was looking at them.

Sakura kicked out, hitting Draco in the shin. The bond lurched forward and turned to glare at Sakura. Draco's friends turned to him in worry, not sure what had happened.

Sakura ignored his look. "Dragon, could you tell me who he is?" She nodded towards the man, who had now shifted his gaze towards the Gryffindors.

"That's professor Snape, our head of house." Draco hissed, face scrunched up in pain. He was clutching his leg under the table, glowering.

Sakura nodded, then turned back to Itachi.

"He can see them." She said, indicating towards their lockets. "Is his the spy?"

Itachi nodded, face blank. "That is the most likely explanation."

"...Those wishing to play for their House Quidditch teams should give their names to their Heads of House as usual. We are also looking for new Quidditch commentators, who should do likewise."

Sakura turned back to Dumbledore.

"We are pleased to welcome a new member of staff this year. Professor Slughorn."

A bald man stood up.

"He is a former colleague of mine who has agreed to resume his old post of Potions master."

Everyone began talking at once.

"Professor Snape, meanwhile, will be taking the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"No!" Sakura and Itachi turned to look curiously at the Gryffindor table. Harry had been the one to exclaim so, loud enough that everyone heard him.

The Slytherin table cheered again. Snape raised a hand in acknowledgement, but apart from that, didn't really react.

Dumbledore cleared his throat, then waited a few seconds for everyone to quieten down.

"Now, as everybody in this Hall knows, Lord Voldemort and his followers are once more at large and gaining in strength."

Sakura causally glanced around, looking at the reactions of the people in the room. Draco was balancing his fork over his plate, and Harry was shooting the blond a look.

"I cannot emphasize strongly enough how dangerous the present situation is. We must call take care to ensure that we remain safe. The castle's magical fortifications have been strengthened over the summer and we are protected in new and more powerful ways. However we must still guard against carelessness on the part of any student or member of staff."

Sakura folded her hand sin front of her.

 _'Yes, and he doesn't seem to know that there are a few spies within his 'safe walls'.'_

'We don't know if he really doesn't know. We're certain that he didn't pick up anything from Itachi and I when we went to see him, but it's close to impossible to read him.'

 _'I agree. You must be careful, Kura-chan.'_

"I urge you to abide by any security restrictions that you teachers might impose upon you, however irksome you might find them. Especially the rule that you are not to be out of bed after hours. Should you notice anything strange or suspicious within or outside the castle, you must report it to a member of staff immediately. I trust you to conduct yourselves, always, with the utmost regard for your own and others' safety."

Dumbledore smiled.

"But now, your beds await, as warm and comfortable as you could possibly wish, and I know that your top priority is to be well-rested for your lessons tomorrow. Let us therefore say good night."

* * *

Sakura and Itachi squeezed through the crowd, reaching Neji and Shikamaru's side before they had really stood up.

"Guys." Sakura ignored the looks they were receiving and gestured towards them.

"We shall come over the moment we are finished unpacking." Itachi said, remembering what the prefects had said. "Then, we shall discuss out actions in the near future."

"It's a good thing we were split this way." Neji said. "We have eyes and ears on both sides."

"But the two houses don't seem to be too fond of each other." Sakura said.

"We'll discuss this later." Itachi decided.

His team nodded in agreement and they parted ways.

* * *

"These are the Slytherin dorm rooms." A prefect was saying.

Sakura tuned him out in favor of looking around.

Itachi would be listening anyways.

"The boys are on the left and the girls are on the right."

Sakura pouted, and Itachi just ruffled her hair.

After the two of them listened to the prefect introduction with the first years, they made their way towards where their grade members were hanging around.

Draco instantly stormed up to them. "I'll introduce you to other people worth hanging out with." He said.

Sakura glanced at Itachi, and nodded. The two of them followed the blond over to one of the couches. The people there were making a ruckus, but they all looked up when Draco approached them.

Sakura recognized a few of them as the people in the train.

"That's Theodore Nott." Draco said, pointing at a guy sitting by himself in the corner. "And that's Daphne Greengrass." He paused. "They both come from pretty respectable Pureblood families."

Sakura hummed, not really listening.

She really wanted to go explore...

"We have a meeting. Go unpack, okay?" Itachi said.

Sakura blinked, then shrugged. "I'm going to go dump my stuff in the room thing." She waved her tattooed arm in Itachi's face, who nodded. He picked up his bag and turned to walk away. Sakura, bagless, turned the other way.

* * *

Sakura pulled out the things she wouldn't need all the time, such as spare clothes, and books she had brought for her own entertainment dumped it on her bed. She wasn't going to use it anyways. It had been an unspoken decision to spend the nights in the common room. On missions, especially ones like this, there there were a lot of unknown variables, it felt safer to sleep close.

She kept things like lesson books and any shinobi tools in her seal. Satisfied, she turned around and went back out to the common room. She walked past Pansy and the girl named Daphne, ignored their curious looks, and darted off.

* * *

Itachi sorted through his things with the precision, the swiftness, and the accuracy he was known for. He ignored his roommates, Draco, and two guys that were a part of Draco's posse, Crabbe and Goyle, who were watching him with badly hidden curiosity.

"Tachi!" Itachi whirled, round and snatched his pink haired teammate out of the air. Had she kept going, she would have landed on his bed, where he had just finished sorting everything out.

"You're so organized." Sakura swept herself around the Uchiha, expertly slipped out of his grip and wrapped her arms around his neck. She hung off his neck and the Uchiha grabbed her under her knees so that he wouldn't choke.

"How do you sort it so neat?" Sakura repeated.

He would never tell her he had used his Sharingan to get sort everything.

Instead, he shifted Sakura weight. "Why are you here?" He asked, not rudely.

"Was bored." Sakura grumbled. "School starts tomorrow. Can we find Neji and Shika now?" Itachi sighed. He exited the room with Sakura clinging onto him like a koala; He was done anyways. He had a scroll with his books tucked into his robes, and another with all his weapons in his sleeve.

The Uchiha sat down on one of the sofas, squishing Sakura between his back and the seat. She squeaked and Itachi smirked as Sakura punched his shoulder half heatedly, as in with no chakra.

He grunted, the blow actually feeling nice on his tense shoulders. Sakura caught this. "I'll give you a tenketsu chakra massage later." She promised.

Itachi nodded. He grabbed Sakura and threw her over his shoulder. "Let's go see Neji and Shikamaru."

* * *

Itachi and Sakura stopped in front of the Gryffindor portrait, unsure of what they were supposed to do. The woman on the portrait looked distrustfully at them, but they ignored her and she didn't say anything.

"Shall I knock the wall down?" Sakura asked. Itachi just looked at her and she sighed. "I was joking. Anyways, I have an idea."

* * *

"NEJI! SHIKA!" Neji had always thought that the worst way to draw attention oneself was to embarrass himself. He wasn't so sure now, as Sakura's voice cut through the walls and reached the ears of everyone there.

Shikamaru sighed and muttered a "Troublesome", but there was a hint of fondness in his tone.

Both of them had finished unpacking and they had been hanging around the other Gryffindors in their Common room.

"Her majesty has called." Shikamaru said. "We have to go now." Girls let out groans of disappointment and Shikamaru sighed. He now understood why Itachi and Neji found fan girls annoying. What part of his lazy demeanor they found attractive, he didn't know. He was having as much trouble as Neji, who was having problems of his own.

The moment they had been dismissed by the prefects, the whole room had instantly swarmed him to ask about his eyes, which he had brushed off as a 'family secret'. With the blood status system here, they knew how families were secretive about things, and they dropped it.

Neji and Shikamaru nodded at everyone, then excused themselves, sighing when a majority of them followed.

* * *

"I guess that was your good idea?" Itachi asked.

Sakura smiled sweetly and nodded.

"Hey." Sakura turned around, grinning. "Were you guys done?"

Shikamaru nodded, stretching his neck and humming in satisfaction when it cracked. "Yeah."

"Class starts tomorrow." Neji said. "We've listed the classes we share with Slytherin."

"During the feast, did you see the guy that was staring at us?" Sakura asked. She received nods. "He could see our marks. I think he's the spy."

"I think he's our Defense Against the Darks Arts teacher." Neji said. "We share that class."

"Do we contact him?" Sakura asked. "He knows who we are, probably."

"Our client hasn't said anything about contacting his other spy. I say we stick to his orders, word for word." Shikamaru said.

"Classes start tomorrow." Itachi reminded them. "Be prepared."

* * *

 **So, here's chapter two!**

 **Ideas and suggestions are welcome.**

 _ **Darque: All this research is kind of fun. I love it when I have to search and ask around and stuff.**_

 **Raven: Yes...fun...**

 _ **Darque: Also when I have to change things around so that it makes sense, but also fits.**_

 **Raven: Yes...fun...**

 _ **Darque: Wazzyer problem?**_

 **Raven: Twoz called SCHOOL**

 **(Tell us if the characters are OOC, kay?)**

 **Read and Review!**


	3. Chapter 3: Of the Lessons and Quidditch

_**Chapter THREE**_

Team Riki met up outside the hall before breakfast, before they headed in together. Though they couldn't eat together, it felt better to meet up and confirm things before they split.

Sakura and Itachi sat at the edge of the bench again. Sakura quietly used her Chakra strings to yank over anything that caught her eye. She sniffed it curiously, before pushing it away.

"Why isn't there any rice?"

Itachi shrugged. He was eating the plainest bread there was. Sakura quickly followed.

"How can anyone eat so much?" Sakura muttered, glancing around in disgust.

"I though you would be used to things like this, considering that you teammate is Naruto."

"Good point." Sakura gulped down a cup of water, done. Itachi followed not a second later, placing his cup on the table.

* * *

The first class they had was the Study of the Ancient Runes. Since it was mostly purely theory, Sakura felt that it was a breeze. She sighed when she saw Itachi listening to the teacher drone on and on about something.

She would read through the textbooks later.

They were dismissed after the teacher gave them homework, a fifteen inch essay, two translations, and a few books to read through.

Sakura saw Hermione marching off towards Harry and Ron, looking worried.

Their next class was Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Slytherin shared their class with Gryffindor, something both houses complained about.

Well, most of them did.

Sakura skipped up to Neji and Shikamaru, tugging a deep in though Itachi behind her. "Hi! We're in the same class."

Neji nodded briskly, sighing when Shikamaru yawned. "This lazy one here was caught sleeping."

Sakura blinked. "This one is taking classes too seriously." She nudged Itachi.

"All knowledge is worth having." Itachi said blankly.

"Hey, Neji, Shikamaru..." Sakura turned around to see some Gryffindor girl trail off.

"Who's that?" Sakura asked, eyes narrowed.

"Some annoying girl that won't leave us alone." Neji muttered. "Her name is...Lavender Brown, or something."

"Hello, who are you?" The girl asked, rudely giving Sakura a once over.

"Can we go? Class starts soon, an I think the teacher is the Snape guy." Sakura asked, turning around promptly.

"I have no reason to argue with that." Shikamaru sighed.

Team Riki ignored the Gryffindor girl and turned to face the door just as it opened and Snape stepped out.

"Inside." He ordered.

Team Riki sat down in a middle row in the order Neji, Sakura, Shikamaru, Itachi.

Harry Potter and his friends sat in front of them. Sakura eyed Snape, then looked casually around the classroom. She knew guys like this too.

"I have not asked you to take out your books," said Snape, addressing Hermione, who quickly dropped them.

"I wish to speak to you, and I want your fullest attention." Snape began.

"You have had five teachers in this subject so far, I believe." He made a few jeers at the previous teachers, before going on to describe the Dark Arts. Sakura noted Snape's obvious dislike for Harry Potter.

Itachi, meanwhile, thought Snape talked about the Dark Arts in a very familiar way.

"Now, you will divide into pairs. One partner will attempt to jinx the other without speaking. The other will attempt to repel the jinx in equal silence."

Sakura and Neji paired up, while Itachi and Shikamaru did the same.

"You do know that we don't really know any jinxes, right?" Neji asked.

Sakura nodded. She glanced at Neji, and receiving a nod, raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss..."

"Haruno, sir." Sakura said.

"Yes, Miss Haruno?"

"We don't really know any spells taught here." She said, and Snape scowled.

"Ah, yes. The transfers from Japan."

Sakura stood there as Snape attempted to glare her down.

"Very well. You may practice the spells you are taught back at your previous school."

Sakura nodded in gratitude before turning back to Neji. "Let's do this?"

"We don't know any _shield_ charms." Itachi pointed out.

Sakura sighed. "Let's just do what we normally do, okay?

"How troublesome."

Sakura held up her wand.

Silent jinxes were very similar to techniques performed without hand signs. She then glanced around. Still, the levels of the techniques they knew were on a completely different level to what was being practiced.

"Try to tone down on the techniques." Itachi said, having noticed the same thing.

"Sure." Sakura muttered.

She gripped her wand and gave it a random wave.

'Suiton: Suidan no jutsu!'

She sent the water ball towards Neji, who swung his wand to one side, before spinning, blocking the attack with a kaiten.

"Kaiten doesn't even require the wand." Sakura said.

Neji shrugged.

Sakura pouted, running chakra to her skin and her robe so that the water just slid off.

A few unfortunate people around them got splattered by the water.

Neji held up his wand, and Sakura felt the wave of chakra approaching, even without the use of her Byakugan.

She quickly waved her wand, disrupting the flow within the Vacuum Palm...er...wand? with the same technique of her own.

"Okay. I really think this isn't what we should be doing." Sakura muttered.

Meanwhile, Itachi and Shikamaru were having similar problems.

Well, problems in terms of how much damage they cause to the area around them. That, and they weren't really taught defense techniques.

Shikamaru decided to use his Shadow mimicry technique, and Itachi 'defended' against it by summoning his crows, and using them to cover every source of light there was in the room.

Shikamaru sighed, a sign of defeat, and Itachi sent back his crows.

Itachi summoned a simple fireball, and Shikamaru waved his wand with another sigh.

Itachi was slowing down on purpose to let Shikamaru catch up, and all of Team Riki knew it.

An earth wall popped up in front of the Nara, and Itachi, with a sigh, weakened his attack even more before sending it towards the Nara.

After all four of them were done, they glanced around to access the damage. Snape glared disapprovingly at them, but didn't comment, even as the other students muttered to each other, shooting them looks. The DADA professor waved his wand, clearing the mess they had created, including the huge puddles of water from Sakura's Water bullet Technique, the scattered pieces of paper from when the two Vacuum palms collided, the crow feathers, and the remains of the brick wall.

Luckily, for them, Snape's annoyance was soon directed at Harry, who just couldn't seem to hold his tongue.

In the end, he earned himself a detention.

Team Riki headed out for their short break a while later, ignoring the looks shot their way.

* * *

Sakura was bursting with excitement for the coming class, Potions.

Apparently, Narcissa had played with a few strings, and they had been allowed to enter the classes that usually, only the people who had gotten the required O.W.L grade, but they were allowed to go through without the exams.

Then again, none of them would fail anyways.

They entered the classroom and found that only a few people were taking this class. There were four Slytherins apart from Sakura and Itachi. Draco was one of them. The four were sitting at a table. There were four from Ravenclaw, occupying another table.

Harry and his friends were sitting at a table with some Hufflepuff.

Neji nudged them, and they sat down at an open table, and not a second later, their teacher trotted into the room.

The man greeted Harry and Blaise enthusiastically, before turning to the rest of the class.

"Now then...Scales out, everyone, and potion kits. Also, don't forget your copies of Advanced Potion-Making..."

"Sir?" Harry raised his hand.

"Harry, m'boy?"

"I haven't got a book or scales or anything. Ron hasn't either. We didn't realize we'd be able to do the N.E.W.T., you see..."

"Ah, yes, Professor McGonagall did say something...Don't worry, m'boy. You can use ingredients from the store cupboard today, and I'm sure we can lend you some scales. We've got a small stock of old books here. They'll do until you can write to Flourish and Blotts..."

Slughorn strode over to the cupboard in the corner, and pulled out two copies of Advanced Potion-Making by Libatius Borage. He passed them to Harry and Ron. He also gave them each a set of scales.

"Now then." Slughorn returned to the front of the class. "I've prepared a few potions for you to have a look at. These are the kind of thing you'd be able to make after completing your N.E.W.T.s. You must to have heard of 'em, even if you haven't made 'em yet. Can anyone tell me what this one is?"

He pointed to one of the cauldrons.

Hermione was the first to raise her hand. "It's Veritaserum. It's a colorless, odorless potion that forces the drinker to tell the truth." Hermione said.

Sakura shot Itachi a look. They'd have to watch out for things like this. In this world, where potions like this existed, they would have to watch out for everything,

"Very good!" Slughorn pointed to another cauldron. "Now, this one is pretty well known. Featured in a few Ministry leaflets too...Who can-?"

Hermione's hand was first again.

"lt's Polyjuice Potion, sir," She said.

"Excellent, excellent! Now, this one here... yes, my dear?" Slughorn, now looking slightly amused, gestured to Hermione again.

"It's Amortentia."

"It is indeed. It seems almost foolish to ask but I guess you know what it does?" Slughorn looked pretty impressed.

"It's the most powerful love potion in the world."

Sakura turned to Neji and snickered. "Bring a little back for Hinata. Maybe she can use it on Naruto."

It took everything in the Hyuuga to not jump to his feet in horror.

"Quite right! I suppose you recognized it by its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen?"

"Also the steam rising in characteristic spirals." Hermione continued. "It's supposed to smell differently to each of according to what attracts us, and I can smell freshly mown grass and new parchment and-"

She trailed off, suddenly embarrassed.

"What is your name, my dear?" Slughorn asked.

"Hermione Granger, sir."

"Granger? Could you possibly be related to Hector Dagworth-Granger, the founder of the Most Extraordinary Society of Potioneers?"

"I don't think so, sir. I'm Muggle-born."

Sakura could hear Draco and Theodore snickering.

"Oho! 'One of my best friends is Muggle-born, and she's the best in our year!' I assume this is the friend you spoke of, Harry?"

"Yes, sir." Harry nodded.

"Well, take twenty well-earned points for Gryffindor, Miss Granger." Slughorn smiled.

Neji shot Sakura a smug look, oozing smugness like he practiced it every day.

He probably did.

Itachi nudged her, and she noted that he had seen too.

"You are so on, Hyuuga." Sakura sneered.

"Bring it, Haruno." Neji said, amusement in his eyes.

* * *

"And now." Slughorn said. "It's time to start work."

"You haven't told us what's in this one." Ernie Macmillan said, pointing at the cauldron standing on Slughorn's desk.

"Oho." Slughorn smiled. "Yes. That. Well, that one, ladies and gentlemen, is a curious little potion called Felix Felicis. I take it that you know what Felix Felicis does, Miss Granger?" He turned to Hermione, who had gasped.

"It's liquid luck." Hermione said. "It makes you lucky!"

"Quite right, take another ten points for Gryffindor. Yes, it's a funny little potion, Felix Felicis. Very tricky to make, and disastrous to get wrong. However, if brewed correctly you will find that all your endeavors tend to succeed ... at least until the effects wear off."

Sakura tensed.

A potion that made you lucky?

Team Riki exchanged glances. Even Shikamaru was wide awake.

They shared a single glance, then nodded.

It was a dangerous thing in their career to depend on things like that. Become too dependent, and it could cost one their life.

It was tempting, though, and if they really wanted it, they could always just...

They turned back to Slughorn, who was talking again.

"And that-" He was saying, "-is the prize of this lesson."

There was a moment of silence as it sunk in.

The next hour or so was filled with people attempting to make the Draught of the Living Death. Itachi and Sakura, Neji and Shikamaru each teamed up without really sharing any words.

They always had the 'new students' card if they needed. Besides, if a pair won, they would only get half of the Felix potion each.

Sakura frowned at the instructions, sniffed the beans, then told Itachi to crush the beans instead of cutting them.

Itachi raised an eyebrow, and so did Slughorn, who had been wandering behind them to watch the work of the students.

"It's the same when making medicine." Sakura said, choosing her words carefully so that she gave nothing important away. "These beans aren't the freshest. If you wanted the beans as a whole, it wouldn't matter if you tossed them in whole. This means we need the juice. If the beans were fresh, it wouldn't matter, but these are kind of old. Crushing them is the most effective way for the juice to come out."

Itachi shrugged, then did as told with precise flicks of his wrists.

Slughorn nodded with a bright smile on his face.

* * *

"And time's... up! Stop stirring, please!"

Sakura looked up from where she had been folding paper cranes. After she had done what she claimed to be 'her part', she had left the potion making to Itachi. She had already made a hundred or so out of a scrap piece of paper she had gotten from somewhere.

One thousand cranes granted a wish too.

Slughorn moved around the tables, looking into cauldrons. He passed Team Riki's table. He nodded at Neji and Shikamaru, and looked very impressed with Sakura and Itachi's potions, which was very pale compared to the others.

He walked over to the last table. He nodded at Hermione's, smiled ruefully at Ron's, ignored Ernie's, and looked incredibly delighted with Harry's. "It seems like we have a slight problem..." Slughorn turned to Sakura and Itachi. "But before that, I overheard an interesting conversation between he two of you."

Sakura blinked.

"You crushed the beans instead of cutting them up." Slughorn said. Harry shot the pair a look. "Why is that?"

 _'He heard us talking about it!'_

"Because it's a more effective way to get the juice out." Sakura said, unsure of where this was going.

He smiled. "Very good. Ten points to Slytherin for good understanding and reasoning."

Sakura shot Neji a look.

"Also, you said something about medicine?" Slughorn pressed.

"I took healing classes before." Sakura said.

Slughorn hummed. "You must the the transfers I heard about." He nodded to himself. "Now, it seems like we have two winners..."

"I shall prepare a second bottle for later." Slughorn said. "For now-" He turned to Harry. "It's clear you've inherited your mother's talent. She was very good at potions! Here you are, then, here you are." He passed the bottle over. "As promised, one bottle of Felix Felicis. Use it well!"

Sakura and Itachi shrugged. They didn't really want it anyways.

* * *

"He did something, didn't he?" Sakura murmured under her breath.

Itachi nodded. "Keep an eye on Harry Potter during lunch." He ordered Neji and Shikamaru. The two nodded, for Itachi _was_ team leader, no matter their usual team dynamics.

They split at the entrance of the dining room. Sakura and Itachi sat down in their usual place and eyed the food that was already set up.

Sakura pulled a bowl of something towards herself and sniffed it curiously. She picked up what she had learnt to be a 'spoon' and dipped it into it. The spoon was like a smaller, not-made-of-wood version of an otama, which was basically a large wooden spoon used to scoop ramen soup.

Sakura would know a lot about this, seeing that Naruto dragged them to eat at Ichiraku often.

Believe it or not, she missed ramen.

She brought the spoon full of red soup to her mouth. "Tomato." She muttered.

Itachi turned to her, then eyed the soup in front of her. "Tomato?"

Sakura nodded. She took another mouthful of the soup. "Kinda good."

Itachi hummed. "Do you think my brother will like it?"

Sakura grinned.

* * *

The next day was what they had come to know as 'Saturday', which was the sixth day in the week, and a part of the two day holiday known as the 'Week end'. Sakura had complained that it was 'Unfair' and that Shinobi should have 'holidays where no one was allowed to go on missions or fight each other'.

A few people were hanging around the Common Room, working on the homework that had been given to the earlier on that week. Neji and Shikamaru were working on some essay on 'The Principles of Rematerialization'.

A sudden movement alerted them both of their moving target. Neji and Shikamaru noted Harry Potter about to leave the Common room.

Shikamaru ran chakra to his ears and heard the last few words shared between the three, whom they had come to know as the 'Golden Trio'.

"Good luck!" Hermione called. "We'll wait for you. Tell us what he taught you, okay?"

"Good luck!" Ron said, and the two of them watched their friend leave through the portrait hole.

Neji activated his Byakugan, keeping an eye on Harry Potter as the boy walked down the corridor. Shikamaru sighed, then wandered over to Hermione and Ron, who were now talking about the homework.

Hermione noticed him first. She smiled and gave a little wave. "Hey, Shikamaru!"

Ron turned around. He fixed Shikamaru with a wary look, before it melted away into a tiny smile. "Hey."

Shikamaru yawned. "Hi." He plopped himself down onto the space Harry had been occupying before and stretched. "I'm so tired."

Hermione giggled. "You're always tired." She said, repeating what she always heard Sakura say.

"Aren't you?" Shikamaru asked, yawning again. "I'd be asleep now if I didn't have homework to do. I know we have tomorrow, but I'd rather do everything today, then sleep through tomorrow." He squinted at the clock, then rubbed his eyes. "Darn. I can't even see the time."

"It's almost eight." Hermione told him. "Which is still kind of early."

"Oh." Shikamaru sighed.

"If you're that tired, you should sleep more, you know?" Hermione said.

Shikamaru opened his mouth, but Neji beat him to it. The Hyuuga had wandered over, and was now standing behind his teammate.

"He's always asleep." He said. "He naps all the time and sleeps through most of the classes."

Hermione gasped. "But...then...if you don't pay attention, you might fail, or something!"

Shinobi life had always been more to do with physical skill and ability. When it came to a battle situation, knowledge that came from books didn't help much, unless it was come forbidden scroll that taught you a technique that got you out of whatever situation you were in. Even if it did, if you couldn't perform it, it didn't help anyways.

And besides, Shikamaru was a genius. He knew things without ever being taught.

All in all, he had never seen the need to focus in class.

He yawned again. "I won't." He rubbed at his eyes.

Ron raised an eyebrow.

"Aren't you guys tired?" Neji asked.

Hermione shrugged. "We're used to staying out late." She said, a tone akin to annoyance laced into her voice.

"And we need to wait for Harry today." Ron chirped.

"Harry? Oh, where'd he go?" He looked around as if he had just noticed that the boy wasn't here.

"He's training with Dumbledore." Hermione said, eyes shining.

 _Bingo!_

"The principle?" Shikamaru asked. "Wow. What for?"

Ron shrugged. "We don't know. We're waiting for him to come back so he can tell us."

Hermione glanced around carefully, then leaned forward.

Neji and Shikamaru took the cue and did the same. "Since you're transfers and come from Japan, I don't know how much you know about it, but I'll tell you the basics, okay?"

Hermione told them about Harry's history, of how he had lost his parents to the Dark Lord, Lord Voldemort, and how he had been the only person to survive some killing curse.

"We don't say his name." Hermione said. "Here, people call him You-know-who or He-who-must-not-be-named."

"That's a mouthful." Neji murmured.

Hermione cracked a smile. "I'm sure you remember from the feast at the start of term, but he's come back."

Ron spoke up then. "Dumbledore's trying to teach Harry to fight him, or something."

Shikamaru hummed. "Oh. That sounds...scary."

 _Not really._

"But we'll stay with him till the end." Hermione announced. "Because we're friends."

This time, when Shikamaru smiled, it wasn't an act.

That was something he liked to hear.

 _And_ they had information which should keep Sakura off their case.

This day couldn't have gone any better.

Now, if only he didn't have to do homework.

* * *

Sakura, Itachi, Neji and Shikamaru met up whenever they could to share information. They noted everything down on a scroll, so that they could sort through everything when they were alone. Sakura kept it stored in her arm.

Classes seemed to go on smoothly as well.

Sakura and Itachi got their vial of Felix Felicis, which Sakura also stored in her arm.

They now practiced non-verbal 'spells' not only in Defense against the Dark Arts, but in a few other classes as well.

Not that it mattered, seeing that hand sign-less techniques weren't that difficult. They actually learned a few useful spells, such as the one that let them return everything to it's normal state and stuff, but they decided to stick to their techniques when it came to combat.

* * *

The daily letter delivery service interrupted their breakfast. Among the many owls, one bird caught Sakura's eye. "Hey! Isn't that..."

Itachi looked up and caught sight of what Sakura was talking about. A few Slytherins, who had been sitting close by, looked up curiously after overhearing them.

Across the room, Neji and Shikamaru had noticed as well.

A very loud screech made everyone look up, the cry bringing shivers up more than one spine.

The magnificent hawk stood out among the owls.

"That's Iroha!" Sakura got to her feet and spread her arms. The messenger hawk, Iroha, let out another screech before swooping down towards the pinkette. It tore through the cloud of the other birds, knocking more than a few from its course. Feathers rained down below.

The hawk landed neatly on Sakura's arm and held up it's leg, where a message scroll was tied to it.

Sakura took it and handed it to Itachi, then fed the bird some sausages from some plate.

"Hokage-sama expects a report from us within this week." Itachi said, having quickly read through the scroll. "Iroha will come back in three days, and we are to hand it to him then."

Sakura hummed. She petted Iroha on the head one more time before she tossed it up into the air. The bird screeched again, before swooping down and grabbing some beacon off the table. It vanished out the way it had come in.

* * *

Later, Neji and Shikamaru overheard the Golden trio talking about some 'Hagrid' and Quidditch tryouts.

After breakfast, Itachi relayed the Hokage's message to them. Since it was a Saturday, they had no classes, but Sakura and Itachi soon departed, saying that they would finish off the mission report.

With nothing really left to do and curious about this 'Quidditch', which they had heard about often in the Common Room, Neji and Shikamaru decided to check it out.

A girl, whom they knew to be Katie Bell, smiled when they approached the group of people, all Gryffindor, hovering around the Courtyard.

"Are you here for Quidditch tryouts too?"

The shinobi glanced at each other. "Quidditch tryouts?"

* * *

Neji eyed his broom in one hand, then at all the people flying around on them as if they were nothing.

It hurt his pride, but-"Neither of us know how to fly."

And they spent the next fifteen minutes learning that.

Katie was impressed, seeing how quickly they had picked up the skill.

Well, they were shinobi. Adapting and quick learning were in their blood.

* * *

Shikamaru tossed what was called the 'Quaffle' into the air, then caught it. "So you throw this thing into the hoop?"

Some kid who had been enthusiastically telling him about the rules, nodded. "Yeah. It's worth ten points."

Shikamaru turned to where Neji was fiddling with a bat.

The Hyuuga turned to the dude who was introducing the other equipment.

Harry Potter was standing it the side, watching them.

The boy released the 'Bludger', and Neji blinked when it flew at him. Not knowing what else to do, he hit the thing with the bat, sending it towards Shikamaru.

The Nara, who had been hovering over the ground with some other guy dodged the thing without even looking.

After the Bludger flew off somewhere, the Nara fixed the Hyuuga with a lazy halfhearted glare. "I'm telling on you to Sakura."

Neji smirked. "We'll see about that." He scoffed, somehow making that rude noise sound poised. "She likes me better."

Shikamaru scowled. "She doesn't."

The Bludger came back towards them. Shikamaru dodged it and Neji whacked it again, this time with much more strength, towards Shikamaru. The boy's eyes widened at the sudden speed and he flipped off his broom, sticking himself to it's underside by his feet. The Bludger flew over the handle with a few centimeters to spare.

It would have hit him if he hadn't dodged.

And that was how the two of them earned their positions, Shikamaru as a Chaser and Neji as a beater, on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

They were on a mission, but they could have fun, right?

Besides, Harry Potter was on the Quidditch team, so they could keep an eye on him this way, right?

The two weren't really sure those reasons alone would be use in pacifying Itachi.

In their defense, they hadn't really gone to the tryouts because they wanted to join the team. They wanted to...uh...see what what Quidditch was.

And they also picked up how to fly.

Maybe it wasn't that bad.

* * *

Luckily, Itachi saw past the fact that Quidditch was considered a 'sport'.

He agreed that it was important to keep an eye on Harry Potter whenever they could.

Sakura pouted that it was 'unfair'.

Draco overheard the last bits of their conversation and marched over to them. He nodded briskly at Neji and Shikamaru, probably unsure how to treat them now that they were in a rival house. He turned to Itachi and Sakura. "They Slytherin Quidditch team tryouts are being held tomorrow." He told them.

Sakura's eyes glinted and Itachi sighed before he was dragged off.

* * *

The next day, Sakura and Itachi went through the basics of flying as well.

They ignored Pansy, who kept sneering and glaring at them from the sidelines.

Draco flashed through everything they needed to know, and if they hadn't been Shinobi, they would have had to ask the boy to repeat everything he said, which was most likely the reaction Draco was looking for.

They heard of the positions, and they quietly discussed the positions which matched up with their abilities.

Itachi followed some dude named Vaisey, who was a Chaser, to try out the Keeper position.

Draco mumbled something about being 'Extremely busy' these days, and led Sakura in the other direction with the snitch in hand.

Sakura noted the hint of fear in the boy's voice as he said this and filed this away.

* * *

Sakura cast a genjutsu over her eyes and activated her Byakugan. With her 360 vision, finding the Snitch wouldn't be hard at all.

Draco released the Snitch, and ten seconds later, told Sakura to find it.

Sakura had no idea if what she was doing was cheating, but she had been tracking the snitch the whole time with her Byakugan. Deciding that it was better to the be safe than sorry, she flew into the air and spent a while pretending to look for it before she flew off towards where the Snitch was hovering around fountain.

She quickly calculated the position of the Snitch and everything around it. She noted the speed of it's movements and briefly wondered if Itachi would be better at the job. She then decided that if she had both the Byakugan and the Sharingan, she would be very good at this, as the Sharingan allowed the user to read and follow movements.

The Byakugan to find the Snitch, and the Sharingan to follow it.

She quickly shook her head. She noted the positioning of everything around the area the Snitch was flying around and narrowed down the possible directions the Snitch would fly off depending on where she swooped at it from.

This was all done in a span of three seconds.

She shot towards the Snitch from behind the fountain, not really sure how the Snitch detected players and moved away.

it wouldn't matter if it tried to run, for within Sakura's Byakugan range, nothing could hide. The Snitch zoomed away and Sakura flew after it. She jumped to crouch on the broom and attached her feet to the handle. She calculated the distance between herself and the Snitch and focused on keeping the same distance. She attached a chakra string to her broom, then broke the connection of the chakra sticking her to the handle.

Sakura reached out and snatched the Snitch midair.

She heard a commotion from below and focus her Byakugan below a split second before she began to fall.

People were shouting and pointing at her.

She saw Itachi look her way, before she saw his chakra signature shrug.

She yanked her broom towards her, landing neatly on it. She then hovered herself slowly towards the ground, jumping off when the ground was close enough. She darted over to Draco and showed him the gold sphere in her hand.

Draco looked at her and blinked a few times in shock before he nodded slowly. "That was...acceptable." He muttered. "I guess you'd do as my replacement."

* * *

A little away, Urquhart was watching Itachi block Quaffle after Quaffle. The Uchiha hadn't missed a single one so far. He didn't even seem to be looking at where the Quaffles came from, just kicking them or knocking them away when the came close.

He turned away in the middle to watch Sakura catch the Snitch and nodded to himself.

These two would do fine.

* * *

 **So...chapter three!**

 **We don't really know how we could fit Quidditch into this thing, but judging from all the research, it sounded fun, and we really wanted to include it...**

 **Yeah...**

 _ **Darque: Are we writing the characters well? We aren't really sure.**_

 **Raven: If we aren't please do tell us...yeah...**

 _ **Darque: Just leave us a review or PM us and tell us how**_ _ **which character is acting out of character and stuff.**_

 **Raven: Reviews are, as always, appreciated!**

 **Read and Review!**


	4. Chapter 4: Of the Dragon and a Necklace

**Chapter FOUR**

Ever since Harry Potter's first visit to the Headmaster's office, no other sneak outs had been reported.

Itachi sorted through the last bits of the report to the Hokage, then sealed it so that only the blond could open it.

Iroha would be coming tomorrow, and he would hand it to him then. He glanced to the side to see Sakura lying on the couch, reading some book. She looked up and caught his gaze. She grinned upside down, then turned back to her book. Itachi sighed, tempted to remind her about posture.

Lessons progressed as normal. Judging from Hermione's reaction, Harry Potter had made a great improvement in the course of Potions.

Itachi was sure it was related to what he had done on their first class.

However, he didn't think that this was something to do with the coming war, and placed this thought to the side.

Itachi also remembered to keep Sakura's warning on Draco in mind. Staying in the Slytherin common room was enough to pick up that the Malfoy was acting weirdly. Those who hung around him often mentioned it a few times.

Neji and Shikamaru had reported what Hermione and Ron had told them of the relationship between their client and their target. As precaution, Itachi and his team had done their fair share of research on those involved. However, living in a house that also acted like the HQ of one side, it was obvious that any questions they asked about the 'light side' would be biased.

Itachi had known that Voldemort was dangerous. Dangerous in a way that drew other in.

The moment Neji had handed in his report regarding their client, he had ordered Sakura to see if she could find anything else. It wouldn't be hard, seeing as the whole of the Wizarding world feared 'He-who-must-not-be-named'.

Having been under Kakashi's lead for sometime, he knew the masked man's quote off by heart.

'Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their teammates are worse than trash.'

If Voldemort was revealed to be an actual danger to him and his team, client or not, Itachi would be responsible for making final decisions and keeping his team alive.

But this was also a mission. They had been hired, and they were to carry out the orders given to them to the fullest extent of their power.

* * *

All four members of Team Riki received invitation to Professor Slughorn's parties. They split it so that two of them went each time. This made it easier for all of them, for Gryffindor had Quidditch training on Saturday.

Shikamaru and Sakura, then Itachi and Neji the next.

It was easy to charm the teacher too. All four of them had the polite, formal upbringing of a clan, and they expressed this confidence in a way that they knew would draw people in.

They also kept Hermione, who had been invited as well, company. She told them that Harry was using Quidditch as an excuse to not come. While that was a good reason, connections were important, and Itachi wasn't sure if he approved of this completely.

* * *

During the next holiday, Narcissa had written all four of them notes, giving them permission to go to Hogsmeade. Itachi had immediately decided that two of them would go to keep an eye on their target, while the other two stayed.

They split so that each group had a Byakugan, and seeing that Sakura's use of her dojutsu changed her eye color, she and Shikamaru were to stay behind, where there was a less chance that someone would see her using it.

"Keep an eye on Draco. He seems to be staying behind as well." Itachi ordered.

When he received two nods from Shikamaru and Sakura, he turned to follow Neji. The two nodded at Filch, who was the one checking off the names. He jabbed at them with his Secrecy Sensor before he let them pass.

Neji sent his two teammates a nod, before following Itachi through the bitter wind towards their destination.

It wasn't hard to start a conversation with the 'Golden Trio'. They simply used their 'new student' card, and got them talking about Hogsmeade.

The three of them led the two of Team Riki towards a store names 'Honeydukes', and they all staggered towards it.

While Itachi and Neji didn't feel the cold at all, despite being dressed only in the robes they usually wore, everyone else seemed to be dying in the harsh wind.

"I heard it snows often in Japan." Hermione had said.

Neither of them gave the knowledge that it never snowed in Konoha a second thought.

"Thank god." Ron let out a sigh. The smell of toffee wafted towards them. "Let's stay here all afternoon."

"Harry, m'boy!"

"Oh no." Harry muttered. All of them turned to see Professor Slughorn making his way towards them.

"Harry, you've already missed three of my little suppers!" He poked him in the chest. "That won't do, I'm determined to have you." He smiled at Hermione, then at the two shinobi. "You love them, don't you?"

"Yes, they're very-" Hermione was cut off.

"Why don't you come along?" Slughorn asked Harry.

"Well, I have Quidditch practice, Professor." Harry said.

"But Neji here, and his friend, Shikamaru, seem to make it fine. They're in your team as well, are they not?"

Harry shot Neji a look, having not known that that was the reason one of them were always missing.

"Well, I certainly expect you to win your first match after all the, hard work!" Slughorn exclaimed. "But a little recreation won't hurt you. How about Monday night? You can't possibly want to practice in this weather..."

"I can't, Professor. I've got...um...an appointment with Professor Dumbledore that evening."

"Unlucky again!" Slughorn cried. "Ah, well . . . you can't evade me forever, Harry!"

He then turned to Itachi and Neji. "I will be expecting you two, yes?"

Itachi nodded politely. "Of course, professor. It is an honor to be invited every time."

Slughorn beamed. "It's no problem, m'boy. Speaking of which, I don't see Shikamaru and Sakura?"

"Shikamaru slept through a lesson or two, and h needs to catch up." Neji cut in smoothly. "Sakura offered to stay with him."

"Ah, yes." Slughorn chuckled. "Well, I guess I'll see you around!"

With a regal wave, he waddled out of the shop.

"I can't believe you've wriggled out of another one." Hermione sighed and shook her head. "They're not that bad, you know...They're even quite fun sometimes..." She caught sight of Ron'e expression, and quickly changed the subject.

The five of them made their way out of the store, and were headed to another when they came across a man with a suitcase.

"Mundungus!" Harry called when he recognized him.

The man jumped, dropped his suitcase, and it's contents scattered onto the ground. The man got onto his knees, and proceeded to pack the things on the floor into his suitcase.

"Are you selling this stuff?" Harry asked.

"Oh, well, gotta scrape a living,." Mundungus said.

"Hang on." Ron said, picking a goblet off the ground. "This looks familiar —"

"Thank you!" Mundungus snatched it out of Ron's hands and stuffed it into his suitcase. "Well, I'll see you all-OUCH!"

Harry pinned the man against the wall of the pub by his throat. He pulled out his wand with his free hand.

"Harry!" Hermione called out.

"You took that from Sirius's house." Harry snapped. "That had the Black family crest on it."

"I-no-what-?" Mundungus spluttered.

Itachi and Neji got ready to step in,

"What did you do? Go back the night he died and strip the place?" Harry continued.

"I-no-"

"Give it to me!"

"Harry, you can't!" Hermione cried.

There was a bang and Harry abruptly let go of the man. Gasping and spluttering, Mundungus seized his fallen case, and with a 'CRACK', he was gone.

Neji's Byakugan flare to life. Even then, he could sense that the man was long gone, the traces of the spell he had used also vanishing. He subtly shook his head to let Itachi know. "Incoming." He added with a whisper.

Harry swore at the top of his voice. "COME BACK, YOU THIEVING-!"

"There's no point, Harry." A woman with mousy hair stepped out of the shadows. "Mundungus will probably be in London by now. There's no point in yelling."

"He's nicked Sirius's stuff! Nicked it!"

"Yes, but still." The woman didn't seem surprised. "You should get out of the cold." She shot the two shinobi a look before ushering them towards Three Broomsticks.

The moment he was inside, Harry burst out. "He was nicking Sirius's stuff!"

"I know, Harry, but please don't shout, people are staring," Hermione whispered. "Go and sit down. I'll get you a drink."

Harry was still fuming when Hermione returned to their table a few minutes later holding five bottles of butterbeer.

"Can't the Order control Mundungus?" Harry demanded. "Can't they at least stop him stealing everything that's not fixed down when he's at headquarters?"

"Shh!" Hermione hissed, looking around to make sure nobody was listening. A couple of warlocks were sitting close by, staring at Harry with great interest. Blaise was lolling against a pillar not far away. "Harry, I'd be annoyed too, I know it's your things he's stealing-"

Harry gagged on his butterbeer, while Itachi and Neji shared confused looks.

"Yeah, it's my stuff!" Harry said. "No wonder he wasn't pleased to see me! I'm going to tell Dumbledore what's going on, he's the only one who scares Mundungus."

"Good idea," Hermione whispered. "Ron, what are you staring at?"

Ron paused, then quickly turned back towards them, looking away from the bar-maid he had been looking at.

"I thought you said the stuff Mundungus was selling belonged to the 'Black' family?" Neji asked.

"Uh...yeah?" Hermione said.

"But Harry is now the owner...?"

"Yeah...oh!" Hermione smiled. "Well, Sirius Black, he was previous owner, wrote in his will that Harry will inherit it." She explained. "Harry is his nephew." She added. She waited for Harry to finish his bottle, then said, "Shall we call it a day and go back to school, then?"

They all nodded. It had not been a fun trip and the weather was getting worse the longer they stayed. They wrapped themselves in their cloaks, then followed Katie Bell and her friend out of the pub and back up the High Street.

Neji and Itachi were long aware of the argument Katie and her friend were having, but it took harry and his friends longer to realize. Harry looked up just as Katie exclaimed, "It's nothing to do with you, Leanne!"

They rounded a corner in the lane, just in time to see Leanne grab a hold of the package Katie was holding. Katie tried to yank it back and it fell to the ground.

Katie rose into the sky, gracefully, as if being levitated. Itachi and Neji instantly realized that their previous thoughts were correct. There was something wrong. The girl's hair was whipped around her by the fierce wind, and yet, her eyes were closed and her face was empty of expression.

Everyone froze.

Suddenly, Katie let out a scream. Her eyes flew open, but she didn't seem to be looking at anything. Leanne started to scream too and seized Katie's ankles, trying to tug her back to the ground. Neji and Itachi were instantly by her side, and they caught the girl when she fell. Katie kept screaming and struggling, unable to recognize any of them.

Harry looked around rapidly. "I'm going for help!" He darted off.

"What do we do?" Leanne asked frantically. "What do we do."

"Neji?" Itachi asked.

"Curse." Neji agreed. "An energy that's not hers is circling within her. It's disrupting her chakra...magic...whatever."

Ron and Hermione looked at them curiously, but didn't say anything at the moment.

"Do we knock her out?" Neji asked.

Leanne looked at him in horror. "What? Why-"

"She will attract attention." Itachi interrupted. "The person who cursed her may be around."

"Someone's coming." Neji said. "Will Harry."

They heard a shout. "Get back!" They recognized Hagrid. "Lemme see her!"

"Something's happened to her!" Leanne sobbed. "I don't know what-"

Hagrid stared at Katie for a second, then without a word, bent down, scooped her into his arms, and ran off toward the castle with her. Within seconds, Katie's piercing screams had died away and the only sound was the roar of the wind.

Hermione hurried over to Katie's wailing friend and put an arm around her. "It's Leanne, isn't it?"

The girl nodded.

"Did it just happen all of a sudden, or-?"

"It was when that package tore." Leanne pointed at the now sodden brown-paper package on the ground, which had split open to reveal a greenish glow. Ron bent down, his hand out-stretched, but Neji stopped him.

"Don't touch it." He crouched down. The necklace was visible, peeking out from beneath the brown wrapping.

"I've seen that before." Harry gasped. "It was on display in Borgin and Burkes ages ago. The label said it was cursed. Katie must have touched it." He looked up at Leanne. "Where did Katie get hold of this?"

"Well, that's why we were arguing. She came back from the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks holding it. She said it was a surprise for somebody at Hogwarts and she had to deliver it. She looked all funny when she said it... I bet she'd been Imperiused and I didn't realize!"

"She didn't say who'd given it to her?" Harry asked.

"No...she wouldn't tell me...I said she was being stupid and not to take it up to school, but she just wouldn't listen and...and then I tried to grab it from her...and ...and..." Leanne let out a wail of despair.

"We'd better get up to school." Hermione said. She helped the girl to her feet. "Well go see how she is."

Itachi used his scarf and gently picked out the necklace. He ignored the shocked gasps of Harry and Ron. "We'll need to show this to Madam Pomfrey." he said.

"You recognize it, don't you?" Neji asked.

Itachi nodded. They had all seen the necklace Draco had bought during their time at Diagon Alley.

* * *

Once Itachi and Neji were gone, Sakura and Shikamaru turned and headed back into school.

"Stay back, he said, but what are we supposed to do?" Shikamaru asked. He yawned.

"Keep an eye on Draco Malfoy." Sakura said. "Nothing much, I guess. We just want eyes on both sides."

Shikamaru sighed, but he straightened.

"Draco said he had detention today." Sakura told him. "With Professor McGonagall."

"Can you see the office from the library?" Shikamaru asked.

"It is within my range." Sakura confirmed.

The two of them spent the day in the library, pretending to study. They had picked a table not too far in that is was suspicious, but close enough to a shelf that the shadow were cast in a way that Sakura could hide her Byakugan. Shikamaru helped by sitting closer to the door, to hide her immediate form with his slightly bigger frame.

After a while, Draco's chakra signature moved out of the office. Sakura relayed this quietly to Shikamaru. He had done nothing suspicious.

"It could be a cover." Shikamaru said. "Maybe he's set something so that it happens while he's in detention. He'll have an alibi that way."

Sakura nodded in agreement. She tapped the cover of the textbook she was carrying. Shikamaru patiently waited for her to gather her thoughts.

"Hogsmeade, then." She said. "Itachi and Neji'll be fine."

Shikamaru had come to the same conclusion, and he nodded.

* * *

Itachi and Neji walked at the back of the group as they made their way up the road. Harry was quiet, thinking deeply.

"Malfoy knows about the necklace." He finally said. "I saw him looking at it in Borgin and Burkes, four years ago. This was what he was buying when we followed him."

Itachi and Neji shared a very quick glance.

"I don't know, Harry." Ron said Hesitantly. "Lots of people go to Borgin and Burkes. Also, that girl said Katie got it in the girl's bathroom?"

"She said she came back with it from the bathroom. That doesn't mean she got it there."

"McGonagall!" Ron said suddenly.

Sure enough, the woman was hurrying down the corridor, towards them. "Hagrid tells me that you six saw what happened to Katie Bell. To my office at once, please." She glanced at Neji. "What's that you're holding?"

"It's the thing she touched." Harry said.

Professor McGonagall looked alarmed. She chased away Filch, then pointed at the scarf wrapped necklace. "Take this necklace to Professor Snape. Be sure not to touch it!"

The six of them followed the professor upstairs. Professor McGonagall closed the door and swept around her desk to face them. "Well? What happened?" Her tone was sharp.

Leanne just about managed to get her story out before she finally broke down and nothing she said was inaudible. Professor McGonagall sent her off to the Hospital Wing. Once she had left, she turned to face the five of them.

"What happened after Katie touched the necklace?"

"She rose into the air." Harry blurted out. "And she began to scream, then collapsed." He hesitated, then added. "Professor, can I see Professor Dumbledore?"

"The headmaster is away at the moment." Professor McGonagall said, looking surprised.

"Away?" Harry repeated.

"Yes." Professor McGonagall said tartly. "Anything you have to say about this can be said to me."

For a second, Harry hesitates, but he opened his mouth. "I think Draco Malfoy gave Katie that necklace, Professor."

There was a shocked pause, before Professor McGonagall spoke up. "That is a very serious accusation, Potter. Do you have any proof?"

"No." Harry said. "But..." He then told her about following Malfoy to Borgin and Burkes and the conversation they had overheard.

During that time, Itachi and Neji were having a conversation of their own.

"Draco separated from us for a while." Itachi murmured. "You were keeping an eye on him?"

Neji hummed in agreement. "He did go into the store, and he did talk to the shop owner."

"And the necklace?"

"It had enough...energy for me to see. It was still in that store."

"But it is likely that it was him."

"Yes."

The two of them turned back to their target and the others gathered in the room. Itachi's face was slightly shadowed, and Neji understood this. This decision was something only Itachi, as team leader, could make. The rest of them would follow his orders.

"Malfoy took something to Borgin and Burkes for repair?" Professor McGonagall was asking.

"He just asked Borgin how to fix something, but he didn't have it with him. The point is that he bought something, and I think it was that necklace-"

"You saw him leave with a similar package?"

"No, he told Borgin to keep it in the shop for him..." He turned to look at the shinobi. "Wait you guys were there with him, but you weren't at the shop. What were you doing."

"Draco said you would like to wander around for a while." Itachi said. "We kept his mother company."

"He didn't say anything about Borgin and Burkes?" Harry pressed.

"If it does help, we have no clue what this 'Borgin and Burkes' is." Neji cut in, already knowing the decision Itachi had made.

"You were with Mr Malfoy during this time?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"Not exactly, Professor. The Malfoys are housing us at the moment, and Mrs Malfoy just took us to shop for school supplies with her son. We weren't with him when he went to this shop." Itachi said.

"Hang on, harry." Hermione spoke up. "Borgin asked if he wanted to take it with his, and Malfoy said no-"

"Because he didn't want to touch it!" Harry said angrily.

"What he said was, "How would I look carrying that down the street?'? Hermione said.  
"Well, he would look like a prat carrying a necklace." Ron interjected.

"Ron..." Hermione sighed. "It would be all wrapped up. That way, he wouldn't have to touch it, and it's quite easy to hide inside a cloak." She pause. "Whatever he was talking about, it was probably noisy or bulky. And I asked about it later, remember. Borgin told me the price, nothing about it being sold or..."

"Well, you were very obvious. Of course he wouldn't tell you. Anyways, Malfoy could have sent off for it-"

"That's enough." Professor McGonagall cut in. "Potter, I appreciate you telling me this, but we cannot blame Mr. Malfoy purely because he visited the shop. There are hundreds of people who have been there. In any case, we have stringent security measures in place this year. I believe that necklace couldn't possibly have entered this school without out knowledge."

"But-"

"And what is more, Mr. Malfoy was not in Hogsmeade today."

Harry gaped at her.

"Guess you were right to keep Shikamaru and Sakura back." Neji murmured. "Have you sent it?"

Itachi nodded.

* * *

Sakura cooed at the crow perched on the window, a carefully placed genjutsu hiding the scroll tied to its back. She took it, making sure to keep it hidden before she sent the bird away.

Spells and barriers may keep things from entering, but summons called from within the walls should have no problem. They didn't know if the spells affected chakra anyways.

"So?" Shikamaru asked.

Sakura passed him the scroll. "Read it. I'll keep lookout."

Shikamaru didn't bother to point out that they would be able to sense anyone that was close enough to catch them without her Byakugan.

However, he also understood her paranoia.

Usually, clients were ordinary people that hired them for protection or accompaniment, or something along those lines.

This time, however their client was someone who seemed like he could hold his own. People like that didn't see the need to share everything. Team Riki was expected to function with what they had been given, for that was all their client thought was necessary in order for them to do the job they had been given.

Their usual clients were people who depended on the shinobi they hired, and would be willing to compromise in order to have them cooperate. They would be too caught up in their own problems that they wouldn't really care as long as they did their job.

However, Shikamaru could tell that Voldemort wouldn't hesitate to throw them to the side if something happened.

Shikamaru abruptly stood up. He scanned over the scroll one more time to make sure he had gotten the contents in his head, before pulsing his chakra through it. The scroll crumbled, before it turned to dust and was gone in a few seconds.

"Come on. We're done here."

Sakura obediently followed him out of the library.

On the way, Shikamaru told Sakura the contents of the scroll. She then led them the other way, towards Professor McGonagall's office. They bumped into him, and the Malfoy looked up, a sharp rebuke on his tongue, only for it die away when he saw who they were.

He looked at them uncomfortably, probably unsure of what to say.

"Did something happen?" Sakura asked. "You're sweating." It was true. The blond was sweating buckets, and his breathing was a little too rapid to be normal.

"No...nothing...I'm fine..." Draco stepped around them and began walking away. However, Sakura grabbed his arm as he brushed past, and yanked him down towards her. Draco's yelp of protest died away when Sakura began to whisper rapidly into his ear.

"We're mercenaries, Dragon."

Shikamaru sighed. "Sakura..." He began warningly.

Sakura raised her hand to stop him. It was so unlike the usual Sakura, that Shikamaru bit back what he had been about to say. With the way she usually acted, it was difficult to remember that Sakura was the head of a clan, and that she had won that position through proving herself. Sakura smiled at him before turning back to Draco.

"There is no rule saying we only accept one job at a time. The type of jobs we don't accept can be counted on one hand." Her tone darkened. "We protect the private information of clients, even if they do clash." Sakura leaned back a little and smiled gently. "Remember, we are nothing like the friends you have known for years. We don't have that kind of relationship. You wouldn't regret dragging us in. With us, you won't have to keep up the facade to convince anyone. Don't try and work everything out yourself. It never works."

Draco stood there, frozen for a while, before he quickly slipped his arm from her grasp and ran off.

"Are you sure that was okay?" Shikamaru asked.

Sakura shrugged. "Something's weird here. You know it too."

Shikamaru simply sighed.

* * *

By Monday, the news of Katie Bell had traveled throughout the school.

Later that day, Neji confirmed Harry's departure to Dumbledore's office.

The next day, Harry didn't say anything to either of his friends, and Neji and Shikamaru had to split with him when they headed to Herbology.

Katie Bell's absence affected their Quidditch too, and though Harry put off finding a replacement, it became obvious that if he didn't do something, it would clash with their upcoming match against Slytherin.

The replacement for Katie was soon chosen, and Dean joined in their next practice session.

Shikamaru spent the first half an hour hovering high above the practice area, staring up at the clouds.

His two fellow chasers, Ginny, who was Ron's sister, and Dean, spent awhile trying to make him come down, before Neji just flew up to them, glanced at their annoyed expressions, then fixed his grip on his bat.

"Peakes!" He called over his shoulder.

There was a loud 'THWACK' as Jimmy Peakes, the other beater on their team, hit the bludger towards him. Neji swung his bat, hitting the bludger up towards Shikamaru at an amazing speed.

Ginny let out a gasp, and the commotion made everyone turn up towards him.

Neji didn't seem to share any of the panic his teammates were feeling. Shikamaru made a sudden move to the left, avoiding the bludger, which flew up a little more before flying back down.

Neji hit it back to Jimmy without batting an eye.

"Can't you see I'm trying to catch up on my sleep?" Shikamaru called down, eyes half closed.

"No." Neji replied curtly. "Ginevra and Dean are waiting, Nara."

Shikamaru signed. "Yes yes."

"Er...thanks, I guess." Ginny said.

Neji shrugged. "If he falls asleep, just kick him off his broom." He turned around and flew back down to join his fellow Beater.

* * *

On the final practice before the match on Saturday, both Neji and Shikamaru noticed something different with Ron and Harry. It had begun during the first practice without Katie Bell, and it been doing on for a while. However it seemed like it had hit the peak.

Harry dismissed the team, before taking Ron to the side. The two talked for a while, before they left.

Neji didn't know what to think.

War was brewing, and though no one seemed to realize it yet, some seemed to feel the darkness looming over them.

* * *

Slytherin booed every Gryffindor that entered the hall for breakfast on the morning of the match. Like every morning, Team Riki entered the hall together.

"We shall see you later, at the match." Itachi said.

Neji nodded firmly. They split off and headed towards their tables.

Neji and Shikamaru ate breakfast, then joined the rest of their team on the walk towards the stadium.

"We're lucky the weather's good, huh?" Harry asked.

"Yeah." Ron muttered, not looking up.

"The conditions look ideal." Ginny said. "Also, guess what? The Slytherin Chaser, Vaisey, took a bludger to the head yesterday during practice, and he can't play. Also, Malfoy's gone off sick too!"

"What?" Harry whirled around to face him. "He's sick? What's wrong with him?"

"No idea." Ginny said with a smile. "I don't know who's playing instead, but it's good for us."

Shikamaru spoke up, looking slightly pale. "Hang on. Malfoy plays Seeker, yes?"

Harry nodded.

"And he is off, so he isn't playing..." Shikamaru shot Neji a look. "That means..."

"It's Sakura." Neji confirmed slowly. "Oh..."

"I think Itachi is Keeper." Shikamaru continued. "I just realized. I have to get the bludggy thing past him, right?"

"Quaffle." Neji corrected. "The bludger is what the Beaters take care of. But yes. Good luck with that."

"Is something wrong?" Harry asked.

"No, nothing is wrong. Absolutely nothing is wrong." Shikamaru muttered. "I just remembered I left Sakura with the...letter back home yesterday."

Neji smirked, remembering that Sakura and Shikamaru had been put in charge of writing their second report back to the Hokage. "Sucks for you."

"You know how competitive they can get." Shikamaru groaned.

Neji had to agree with that.

* * *

 **Here's chapter four! Next chapter will be the match! Leave us a review on who you want to see winning this match!**

 **We know that Gryffindor won it in canon, but we kinda feels sorry for Slytherin too, you know? Like, for everything.**

 **ANYWAYS, LEAVE US A REVIEW ON WHO YOU WANT TO WIN THIS MATCH!**

 **Of course, the awesome shinobi will dominate the match with their super duper awesome techniques...Okay, no fire balls frying the opponents or strings of shadows pinning the others to the ground, but you get the point...**

* * *

 _ **Darque: I have just decided who my most favorite character in Harry Potter is.**_

 **Raven: Oh? Who?**

 _ **Darque: Theodore Nott. And Bellatrix.**_

 **Raven: Bellatrix, I understand. You guys are alike.**

 _ **Darque: What?**_

 **Raven: I mean, the messy, I-don't-comb-my-hair, hair style and the screechy voice and the I-will-kill-you-because-you-annoy-me kind of thing.**

 _ **Darque: I DON'T HAVE A SCREECHY VOICE!**_

 **Raven: You don't deny the others? And you do. I can hear you screeching across the screen.**

 _ **Darque: You-**_

 **Raven: I'm gonna go now~ Bye~**

 **Read and Review!**


	5. Chapter 5: Of the Match and the Holidays

_**Chapter FIVE**_

The moment the Quaffle was released, the players shot forward. Sakura rose into the air, the location of the Snitch already known to her. She didn't have to rush, or anything. Instead, she made a general scan of the situation. It was a shinobi habit, and it let her focus on her task once she knew what exactly was going on.

Sakura knew nothing would get past Itachi, but she doubted those on the Gryffindor team knew that. Shikamaru and Neji would, but it wasn't like they could follow.

The first few moves wasn't anything significant, until Ginny got her hands on the Quaffle and tossed it to Shikamaru.

The Nara made a dramatic movement to stop the Quaffle from hitting his face, but he shot out an arm and hooked it before it could fly past him.

Unlike his lazy appearance, he seemed to be pretty good at Quidditch, dodging and dancing around the attempts the Slytherin players made to try and take it.

However, no matter how much of an advantage Shikamaru had over the normal wizard players, unless he was allowed to use techniques and somehow manage to outsmart Itachi and lead him into a trap, he would not be able to get the Quaffle past the Uchiha and his Sharingan.

Shikamaru seemed to know this too. The moment he had slipped past the last of the Slytherin defenses, and there was nobody between him and Itachi, he passed the Quaffle to Ginny.

The girl seemed a little surprised, but simply took it and shot forward. Her throw was good. It was accurate and powerful, and had the goalkeeper been anyone but Itachi, it probably would have gone in. However, unfortunately for her, the keeper was Itachi, and he caught the Quaffle in his hand as if he were catching the practice shuriken a three year old Sasuke had tossed in his direction.

A chorus of cheers went up in the Slytherin side of the stands.

Sakura shot a smug look down, directed at no one in particular, before deciding that she had wasted enough time.

Harry Potter was hovering over the court opposite her, and he was keeping an eye on her while he searched for the Snitch.

Sakura, on the other hand, made sure to keep an eye on Neji, for he was the only one who had both the skills and the permission in the game who could stop her, and she knew he wouldn't hesitate to take her head off with the bludger he was hitting around the court like he owned it. The Slytherin Beaters didn't look like they could keep up, and Sakura knew that it wouldn't be long before they completely broke down and Neji came after her.

Sakura noted the location of the Snitch, which was flying above the Gryffindor stands, then shot off in its general direction. Harry caught her move and shot off right after her, his eye moving frantically as he looked for the gold Snitch.

She risked a glance down and noted that something was wrong with Ron. Not wrong wrong, but different. He seemed to be blocking the Quaffles as well.

For a second, she didn't know what to think, for she knew that in practice, he hadn't been doing well.

However, just then, she noticed Itachi shooting forward, the Quaffle he had just caught in hand, and knew she had nothing to worry about. She could see Urquhart hovering back, and knew he must have said something. Itachi flashed past the Gryffindor players. Though they were hidden by a genjutsu, Sakura knew that Itachi's Sharingan was blazing beneath his usual onyx. He threw the Quaffle with so much strength, that though Ron caught up to it, he couldn't stop it. It went through one of the hoops.

Itachi, who had used the momentum of his dash forward to throw, then used the rotation the strength of his throw gave him to make a sharp turn, back at his post before the Quaffle was even brought back.

Sakura had an endless list of things she could do to get to the Snitch. However, she knew that Neji would know the moment she used one technique or another, and it wouldn't mean anything unless she beat him on fair grounds.

'Fair Grounds' included the Byakugan, for the Hyuuga was using his too.

Sakura saw the bludger through her Byakugan, way before it was actually a threat. She came to a sudden stop, and the bludger flew up a bit more, right in front of her, before it flew back down.

"That's dangerous! What if it actually hit me?" She called down.

Neji just tilted his head, then readied the bat again.

Sakura moved so that she put Harry between them.

She decided the location the Snitch would be in a few seconds time, having calculated through its current speed, the direction it was headed, and all the other small things that may affect it.

She saw Harry speed up in his broom, and she knew he had seen it.

"Che."

Sakura sped up too, and shot towards the Snitch. Suddenly, it dived downward. Sakura chased after it without hesitating.

If she had added change of direction into her calculation, the possibilities would have been too many.

She could see Harry catching up.

The Snitch had moved to the left. Keeping an eye on it, Sakura stood up on her broom, using chakra to make sure she didn't fall.

Harry swooped in from the side and the Snitch moved back towards her.

Waiting another second, Sakura jumped.

She could hear gasps and calls of shock coming from below. She was pretty high up, but she knew she would survive the fall.

She took advantage of Harry's shock and grabbed the Snitch from the air. She then flipped herself so that she was falling headfirst. Once the floor felt close enough to be dangerous, she kicked out, twisting herself, just in time to land on her feet.

She felt the shock on her landing vibrating through her, but she barely felt it. Getting to her feet, she held up the gold Snitch in triumph.

There was a shocked silence, before a roaring cheer went up in the Slytherin stands.

The Slytherin players landed near by one by one, grinning.

She saw the Gryffindor players landing too, gathering into groups.

She preened under Itachi's hair ruffling and accepted the pat on the backs from her teammates, before she slipped through them and headed towards the Gryffindor players. The others followed, clearly thinking she was going to go mock them.

The Gryffindor players probably through the same, for they crowded even further together and shot them glares.

Sakura ignored them.

Instead, she marched up to Neji and shoved the Snitch in his face. She smirked triumphantly.

Neji scoffed and crossed his arms. "It's just this once, Haruno."

Sakura twirled the snitch around in her hand. "Whatever lets you sleep at night, Hyuuga."

Neji stayed still for a few more seconds, before he sighed and ran his hand calmingly through Sakura's hair. "Well done."

Sakura grinned. The two of them then turned to watch Itachi and Shikamaru, who were having a...conversation.

She didn't understand how they managed to understand each other.

Itachi had been passed on the lack of words all Uchiha seemed to have, while Shikamaru was always too lazy to say something unless he felt it was important.

They're 'conversation' consisted of one word replies and grunts of agreement and disagreement.

She glanced at Neji, who shrugged. Sakura raised her shoulders in return, then turned to face Harry.

"What'd you want?" Ginny asked suspiciously.

'That was fun, I think.'

'I think so too.'

'Next time, jutsus should be allowed.'

'That'll give us an unfair advantage.'

Her Inner let out a huff before going silent.

Sakura shook her head to clear her thoughts. People back at home knew of her Inner. They no longer though it was strange when she just started talking to herself out of nowhere, or just randomly blanked out and stood in the middle of the street for minutes without moving.

However, she knew people who didn't found if slightly disturbing and creepy.

"Anyways." She smiled. "Good game."

Ginny looked a little surprised. Harry just nodded firmly. "Yeah."

* * *

The next major event on the calendars of the Hogwarts students was 'Christmas'. Decorations were put up, and Sakura and Neji had to resort to using their Byakugans to lead Shikamaru and Itachi through the empty corridors.

A certain party being held by Slughorn was also a hot topic.

All four of the shinobi had received invitations to Slughorn's Christmas party. They were allowed to bring a date, and many people were suddenly very kind and helpful, no doubt wanting to be picked by them as their date.

After a while of discussion, Team Riki had decided to wear the formal kimonos they had brought with them. Though Narcissa had bought them dresses for occasions such as this, they decided that it was too impractical. It was events such as these where enemies made their move. It wasn't hard to stay unnoticed when everything was a mess.

The night of the party, Neji and Shikamaru waited for the other two outside the Slytherin dorms. They were both dressed in the hakama they had brought along, and their clothing were drawing a lot of attention. The two of them ignored the muttering, though.

A while later, Itachi appeared, but Sakura didn't follow.

"The Malfoy has come in contact with us." Itachi said. "Sakura is talking to him."

Neji and Shikamaru shared a glance.

* * *

Sakura sat on the couch opposite Draco, waiting patiently for him to gather his thoughts.

After a while, he opened his mouth.

"What's with those clothes?" He asked.

Sakura gestured to herself. She was wearing her clan clothing. She had worn her battle attire when she had first arrive, and Draco hadn't seen her standard clan clothes yet.

"This is what I usually wear back at home. It's formal enough for occasions such as these. Though we are grateful for the dresses your mother bought us, it is slightly impractical and hard to move around in."

There was another moment of silence, before Draco broke it, his voice even more quiet than before. "Before, you said..." He trailed off. He shook his head to clear his thoughts again. "During Christmas. The holidays. You're staying in the manor, right?"

Sakura nodded. "Yeah." She said softly. "I can tell you are a part of something big, Dragon." Sakura said after a while of silence. "My team and I will back you up, okay?"

Draco slowly looked up. "Back me up..."

Sakura nodded. "We won't ask what you're trying to do. This is like a rule. However, we're ready to listen when you want to speak, and ready to help should you ever need aid."

She then stood up. "Come, Dragon. Why don't we head to the party?"

Draco looked at her in surprise and looked ready to complain, but bit his tongue when Sakura suddenly appeared in front of him, a hand raised towards his face.

At his look of shock, she smiled. "We're mystery mercenaries with cool powers, remember?"

She then reached out and touched his cheek.

Draco flinched when a soft green glow appeared on her hand, but instantly relaxed when he began to feel a little less tired. "What's this?" He asked.

"I can heal." Sakura told him. "Though sleep is the best medication for fatigue, it should make you feel better."

"Now, why don't you go get dressed, Dragon. It's important to refresh once in awhile and I'm sure no one will mind if you come along with me."

* * *

None of the three males said anything when Sakura joined them with Draco at her side.

They just nodded politely at him with faint smile on their faces, and after a while, Draco returned it.

They made their way towards Slughorn's office, where the party was being held. They squeezed in through the door to be met with a room full of crowded people. Their entrance, as well as their appearance, instantly caused a commotion. Slughorn noticed them and he happily trotted over.

He greeted them happily, grinning widely. He wandered off after a while of chattering and vanished into the crowd.

"Would you like anything?" Sakura asked Draco.

The Malfoy frowned a little, then slowly shook his head.

"Mkay, then." She looked up when she sensed someone approaching them. She glanced between Draco and Harry, the hostility levels rising between them.

"Hello, Harry." Neji said. "You too, Luna."

"Hi Neji, Shikamaru." He then turned to Sakura and Itachi. "Hey Sakura, Itachi."

He tensed, before nodding at Draco. "Malfoy."

Draco glared right back, and Sakura elbowed him. He turned his glare at her, but didn't say anything. "Potter."

Sakura crossed her arms, looking pleased.

Just then, Slughorn bore down on them, Snape in tow. "Harry, m'boy!"

Harry Potter shuffled uncertainly on his feet and Draco seemed to be feeling a little better, for him mean snake smirk was present on his face.

Slughorn then went on rambling to Snape about Harry's brilliance in Potions. Draco was once again shuffling around and Snape kept glancing at Harry in mock fascination, once in awhile shooting split second looks at Draco.

Luna broke the tense atmosphere with one of her comments, and Shikamaru shot the her, then Sakura, a look. "You guys are alike." He said.

Sakura tilted her head, then glanced at Luna, who was also looking at her. "Really?"

Shikamaru nodded, but didn't say anything. Sakura grinned at Luna, then turned back to the conversation.

"What are you doing here, Draco?" Snape suddenly asked. "You don't look too well."

Indeed, Draco did look sick. Sakura had fixed his appearance a little, but there only so much she could do.

"I invited him." Sakura said. "He's been trying to teach Tachi and I the stuff we missed out on, but it's so boring and I decided that he needed to refresh."

Itachi hummed faintly. "I believe everyone would feel like pulling their hair out with you questioning everything."

Sakura turned to look at him, a hand placed on her chest in mock pain. "They are very valid questions."

"Yes, valid, but unnecessary all the same." Itachi replied, not missing a beat.

"You also like pulling apart fixed theories and breathing down on them with your glares of doom until they rearrange themselves to your liking." Sakura accused.

"Technically, it is impossible to 'breath down' with 'glares'." Itachi replied.

"You-"

Neji let out a loud sigh, and the two came to a stop.

"We are in front of our host and fellow guests." He said, his tone posh and formal, like how he had been brought up.

Instantly, the bickering two straightened. "Yes. My apologies." Itachi dipped his head with Sakura.

"Oh, no, no!" Slughorn chuckled goodnaturedly. "Now, why don't you tell me a little about your clothing? They seem to be attracting a lot of attention."

All four of them were used to mindless chatter that was common in things such as this. Clan gatherings were similar. And so, they fell into the routine that they had been brought up with, taking turns flattering the professor.

Soon, it was getting late. With a well timed comment about school and the time, Itachi withdrew his team, along with Draco, from the Potions professor's company.

* * *

For the Christmas holidays, Team Riki returned to the Malfoy Manor with Draco. They were...'introduced' to Bellatrix's husband, Rodolphus Lestrange, and his brother, Rastaban.

They treated them formally, then quickly excused themselves before they could pull their thoughts together and say something.

Draco seemed kind of impressed.

They kept a careful grasp on their thoughts, keeping their mind blank with the efficiency of an ANBU. The spell they had heard about when they had first arrived in this world, Legilimency, was a danger to those in their profession, especially due to village and clan secrets they may be carrying.

Their report on Harry Potter, which included nothing but pure observations, seemed to please Voldemort, as well as amuse him. He then asked them what they thought, his tone very curious, and after sharing a glance, Itachi spoke up.

"He can sense something." He said slowly. "He knows something is coming, but he isn't aware of the dangers or the scale. Truthfully, I believe he will not be able to hold out."

"Oh? And why is that?" Voldemort leaned in.

"His...side. His side isn't united." Itachi replied. "They aren't ready. They don't have an image of what they are attempting to fight. They don't have that one person that everyone follows. I can see that they are expecting Harry Potter to take on this role, but it is obvious that he isn't ready. He lacks experience, but most of all, he's too soft. He hasn't ever gotten his hands truly dirty, and doesn't have what it takes to kill even when necessary."

Voldemort didn't say anything else. He just nodded at them once in dismissal, and Team Riki left the room without being told twice.

* * *

Team Riki spent most of holidays cramped up in the guest room they had been offered. Actually, they had all been given a room, but no one said anything when they dragged over blankets and decided to use Itachi's room as their HQ.

What they were doing was something no one knew, but none of them could complain, for they still completed the tasks given to them by Voldemort.

The truth was, none of Team Riki had actually questioned their missions before.

The Hokage assigned them a mission, and they followed the requirements word for word.

However, this time round, everything was vague, and the contents could change simply due to Voldemort's thoughts.

And they had to be prepared for everything that could come.

Including a possible black mark in their so far perfect mission records.

* * *

The word 'Horcrux' was something that they had come across once. It had been as though the word was banned, or something.

That had been enough to perk Sakura's interest.

This research project had first started due to Sakura's curiosity, but it had soon escalated from that.

A power to grant one immortality was something a few known shinobi was looking for, and considering technical ease in which Team Riki had traveled over to the Wizarding world, they would have to be very careful with this knowledge.

Itachi decided that a few things in the Wizarding world had to be kept away from their own dimension at all cost, but all plans were best made around a ground knowledge.

"The easiest way would be to block off the contact between the two." Shikamaru said. "But I have no idea how this whole dimension-jump thing works, and so, I bet it's not as easy as it sounds."

"Compared to the power of the wizards in this world, our techniques are ahead by a countless number of steps." Neji said. "There is a possibility that Voldemort may request more aid."

"We don't know how contact was made in the first place." Sakura pointed out. "It's possible that it was simple luck that Voldemort's request reached Konoha."

"If that's the case, then it's not guaranteed that Voldemort is the only one with a way of coming in contact with our world." Shikamaru said. "Who knows who else can do the same? We'll have to consider the possibility that we may come in contact with shinobi of other villages."

"Maybe." Sakura sounded doubtful. "But I don't think so. Voldemort requested our service, and even if he got us because he asked for the most powerful team, or something, he didn't ask for us in numbers. That means he was either very confident in his skills and we're just to make sure things goes as he planned, or he's sure that this small number would still give him an advantage."

"We will send Hokage-sama a report about this." Itachi decided. "Though it may be breaching the rule of client confidentiality, the safety of the village must come first." He narrowed his eyes just a little. "I believe we have the right to be wary of a client who keeps so much to himself."

He received a series of nods.

"However, for now, we will keep an eye on things on our own." Itachi continued. "Back up from Konoha isn't something we can hope for. Hokage-sama sent us because he believes that we can deal with the unexpected to come. After all, he could have simply denied the mission if he didn't think we were capable."

"Where are we going to start?" Neji asked.

Itachi glanced at Shikamaru.

No matter what, on paper, the Nara was the strategist of their team.

"Information." Shikamaru said. At least he knew when to be serious. "We need more firm knowledge on the conflict going on between the two sides. We need more knowledge on everything."

Itachi nodded. "We will spend this 'holiday' to scout around."

"How are we going to do this without anyone realizing? Sakura asked. "I'm sure no one will like it if they found out we're plotting on ways to take them down in case something does wrong."

Itachi shot her a look. He almost looked offended. "We are not plotting their demise."

Sakura just giggled, and a gentle smile appeared on Itachi's face.

Neji simply sighed. "We always do have the clone advantage."

"So we leave clones?" Sakura asked.

"That Bellatrix woman is out to get us. If she actually manages to get us, the clones will vanish." Shikamaru said. "If that happens, they'll notice, and it will be more suspicious if we try to hide what we are doing."

Sakura hummed, nodding slowly.

"We could send out clones." Neji said. "They can conceal themselves with an easy genjutsu, and we can keep a lookout with our Byakugans. If anything occurs, they can always disperse themselves."

"Poof." Sakura said airily.

Neji simply nodded.

Itachi nodded as well. "We shall go with that. Neji and I, then Shikamaru and Sakura." Itachi said. "Cast a henge. We don't know exactly who is on which side."

* * *

The issue of Draco was something they had put aside in order to put together several plans, all weighing on chance.

However, they all noticed the change the boy was going through. They knew that he was doing some project or another, most likely under the orders of Voldemort, and they had already noticed the physical strain it was putting him under.

Itachi hinted that they would have to approach the blond, but they had to be careful about it, for they didn't know where exactly his loyalty lay.

Itachi gave Sakura the side mission of keeping an eye on the boy, and she spent a lot of time with him, babbling away in a way that she knew amused people. It never failed to summon a smile on Konoha's most well known ice-cubes, after all.

Draco seemed to like her company too.

He rarely spoke of what was actually troubling him, but he did contribute to a few of Sakura's self conversations and she decided that for now, it was enough to get his mind off whatever was troubling him.

They had told Draco that they would help him should he ever need aid, and now, it was up to the blond to decided whether or not he could trust them.

And one day, when he finally seemed to break under the pressure of the job that had been thrust upon him, he opened up. "I have to fix it...a Vanishing Cabinet"

Sakura eyed him for a few seconds, before a gentle smile bloomed on her face.

"Why didn't you say so sooner?" She asked gently.

"You...you don't understand!" Draco burst out. "I...I have to fix it...you can't apparate in or out of Hogwarts. I need a way to bring them in..." He trailed off and buried his head into his hands.

"I take that something is coming?" Sakura asked.

Draco nodded stiffly.

"We promised aid." Sakura said. "This cabinet is at Hogwarts, yes?"

Draco nodded again.

"We'll help you once school term starts." Sakura said. "For now..."

She then proceeded to dump a whole load of knowledge she had read about someplace or another onto the poor boy.

Sakura had done a little research on this 'Christmas' thing as well, and on Christmas day, Draco woke up to find a small veil amongst other gifts.

If Itachi noticed the lack of his half of the Felix potion, he didn't say anything.

* * *

The rest of their holiday was spent researching, report writing, and everything else in between.

Once in a while, Voldemort would send them out on a spying mission or some scout mission, or something, and they use that time to slip in a little interrogation consisting of Itachi's genjutsu.

Sakura said that Itachi just wanted to show off.

Itachi denied this, then back it up with a list on why a genjutsu interrogation was best, mostly due to the fact that he could seal away the target's memories of their whole encounter.

Sakura would spend a lot of time in the library, hammering knowledge of their research subjects into her head for future references.

Itachi sent his summons out often to keep an eye on their actual target, Harry Potter, who was spending his Christmas over at Ron Weasley's house.

However, their research seemed to bring more and more aspects into their current problem.

Finally, Itachi gathered the team together for another official meeting.

"We are going to have to look at this from all possible angles." Itachi said. He then sighed. "First, why don't we all share the information we were scouting around for." Itachi paused. "Including the extra research we were all doing behind each other's backs."

Sakura grinned sheepishly, and she was the first to summon out a few scrolls.

Everyone followed.

Itachi just shook his head, but they all could see the small smile present on his face.

Though Itachi had only given them a vague background to look into, he had known that it wouldn't be a problem. After all, none of them were afraid to go beyond orders and take a little initiative.

* * *

When the new term started, they could take lessons on something called 'Apparition'.

"It says seventeen." Sakura said with a frown. "Does that literally mean age, or year?"

"It's probably age." Neji said. "But we're anomalies."

Shikamaru yawned. "What is apparition anyways?"

Sakura opened her mouth, but Hermione, who had been hovering around the signup sheet with Ron and Harry, spoke first.

"It's basically like a magic version of teleportation." She said. "It's hard to pull off and disastrous if you mess it up, but it lets you get to whichever location is in your mind, and is the fastest way to travel."

"Do you think it's like a shunshin?" Neji asked curiously.

Hermione frowned at the change in language, but she didn't say anything.

"I don't think so." Sakura said. "This apparition thing is teleportation. It's more like a Jikuukan ninjutsu. Shunshin is just a burst of speed." She then turned to Hermione. "It's similar to a technique we know from back home called the body flicker technique."

"I don't know what this technique is like, but Harry's already apparated. You can ask him?"

True enough, Harry was surrounded by a few of his friends, and he was describing how uncomfortable it was to tag along when someone else was apparating.

"So what's the body flicker technique like?" Hermione asked.

Harry paused, curious.

Sakura blinked, then turned to look at Itachi. The Uchiha shrugged a little.

It was not like the wizards, who couldn't control chakra, could use it.

Sakura made the tiger hand seal and pulsed chakra through herself. There was a puff of smoke, and Sakura reappeared behind Harry.

"Boo!"

The boy jumped and whirled around.

Sakura grinned and body flickered back to her original location.

"Woah! How'd you do that?" Seamus, one of the guys who had been listening to Harry, burst out.

"Put simply, we temporarily vitalize our body and it allows us to move at extreme speeds." Sakura said. "So it's not really teleporting. We just move super fast."

Dean mimicked the tiger hand sign. "That was amazing."

Sakura and Itachi soon departed for their dorm room, leaving Neji and Shikamaru to answer all the questions thrown their way.

Harry then said something about a library book and withdrew from the group. Neji understood the swift look Shikamaru sent him.

With a vague excuse about school that seemed to convince everyone there, they pulled away.

Neji activated his Byakugan even before they had entered their room.

* * *

No matter how prodigious they were, sometimes, Team Riki had trouble overcoming the fact that they were learning with a language they didn't know existed.

Slughorn chattered on about poisons and antidotes, and it was obvious that no one apart from Hermione understood what he was saying.

Whether the shinobi understood, no one could tell, so that didn't count.

However, there was one major problem when it came to creating an antidote.

"The names of the ingredients are different to what I know." Sakura murmured. "Maybe it's just the name that's different, but that doesn't change anything."

"I've heard that antidote making requires ground knowledge on the counter for each plant or herb used." Itachi said.

"So we're doomed?" Shikamaru asked. He yawned.

Sakura shrugged. "It's almost impossible to come up with an antidote on the field." She said. "The best way to treat someone in a situation like that is to directly extract the poison. When making an antidote, not a single mistake can be made or it wouldn't work." She looked over the list of ingredients used in the poison they were to make an antidote for. "But the extraction, the Saikan Chūshutsu no Jutsu, will only work on the poison that hasn't been absorbed by the organs and whatnot." Sakura sighed. "I really want a scroll and a brush."

* * *

Minato's reply to Itachi's report came to them only a few days later.

Iroha's screech once again brought everyone's attention to the air. The hawk's entry was dramatic as always. Raining feathers accompanied the bloodcurdling cry. The messenger bird's wings sent out gusts of wind.

It landed on Itachi's outstretched arm, claws surprisingly not drawing blood.

Itachi's eyes were blank when he read over the scroll attached to it's back. Not even Sakura could pick out what he was thinking. However, Sakura knew from this unreadable expression alone, that the Hokage had cast his judgement on how they were to deal with the situation.

* * *

 **So, here's chapter five!**

 **The battle of the astronomy tower will be in the next chapter~**

 **We've thought through this a little...actually, we've thought about it a lot, and we've decided that this story will cover the sixth year, then the seventh year.**

 **The Harry Potter series was going through the 'rise to climax' thing during the sixth book, and it feels really forced and rushed if we try to cut it off and make our own conclusion somewhere in the middle...**

 **Meh...**

 **Yeah...**

 **Okay...**

* * *

 **We hope you all have a Happy New Year, and that you keep on supporting our stories. May this new year be better than the last (Regardless for what it was like. If you got a Nokia as your first mobile phone, you could hope for an Sony smartphone this year, right?)**

* * *

 **Bai~**

 **Read and Review!**


	6. Chapter 6: Of the Mutts and the Plan

_**Chapter SIX**_

It all started when a huge toad appeared in the Slytherin common room.

Lessons had ended for the day, and Sakura had found some book or another and she had holed herself in a corner to read it. Itachi, as usual, was hovering over her with some other book.

Theodore Nott, who Sakura had come to know as someone who didn't really get along with anyone, sat on the other end of the couch they had been sharing, a book in hand.

She had just been reaching a part of the book which explained the rough outline of the way which wand making had evolved, when she was, quite rudely, interrupted.

Sakura looked up when some Slytherin girl screamed. Everyone turned to look over.

To be honest, it wasn't the biggest toad Sakura had ever seen. That prize would have to go to the huge toad Naruto had summoned in their fight against Gaara during the invasion on Konoha by Suna and Oto.

However, she knew that the average size of a toad in the wizarding world was nowhere as big as Gamabunta, or even the toad looking perfectly at home in the bowl of stew.

It probably didn't help that it had appeared out of nowhere, in a puff of smoke.

No one spoke up.

Sakura couldn't really blame them, though she was sure a spell or two could make an ordinary toad as big as that.

It was as wide as her arm, and was wearing...

Sakura blinked a few times to make sure, then turned to Theodore. "Is it just me or is that toad wearing clothes."

The boy blinked at her. "...Uh..." He squinted a little. "I think...it is?" He sounded confused.

"Mkay." Sakura was now sure she had seen it before. Was that possible?

"I believe that is a summon." Itachi murmured.

The only toad she remembered that was big enough to be significant was Gamabunta, and she was sure it wasn't him...

'That toad had a son, didn't he?' Her Inner spoke up.

Sakura's widened.

"Oh gods." She murmured. She then turned to Itachi, who was sitting to her right. "That's Gamakichi. Naruto summoned him once."

Itachi narrowed his eyes. "So, a summon sent by Naruto or Jiraiya-sama."

Just then, the toad turned to look in their direction. It paused, before jumping, clearing a few couches and tables and landing next to Pansy Parkinson. The girl screeched but the toad ignored her.

Sakura blinked, and the toad was in front of her. It looked her up and down, and had it not been a toad, Sakura may have felt violated.

Itachi probably would have killed him too.

"Ye...definitely the girl that stained the sand demon pink." He muttered.

"You're the tiny toad Ruto summoned first." Sakura replied. She paused "You are Gamakichi, right? You've grown so much."

The toad snorted. "Ye humans just grow too slow. Just wait a few more years, and I'll be able to flatten Naruto no problem."

Had she been someone else, she probably would have felt embarrassed talking to a toad in front of everyone in the common room.

Instead, Sakura hummed. "What do toads eat, then?" She asked. "Flies really cannot contain enough nutrients."

The toad grunted. "The brat did say ye were a little airheaded." He muttered to himself.

Sakura blinked. "So why're you here?"

Gamakichi did something which was equivalent to an eyeroll. "Sent by Naruto." He said. "With a letter. It's in here." He opened his mouth wide, then spat out a scroll.

Theodore leaned back a little, and Sakura remembered that most of the house was watching.

She picked it up and eyed it a little.

"Naruto wants a reply." Gamakichi said. "I'm ta pick it up and return with it."

"But you don't listen to Ruto." Sakura said.

The toad snorted. "He promised ta feed me 'the best food in the world'."

Sakura shot Itachi a subtle look. She didn't have the heart to tell the toad that it was probably ramen.

Just then, Blaise Zabini, who seemed to be the first of the students to recover, marched up to them.

"What's that?" He asked.

"It's a toad." Sakura said.

Blaise opened his mouth, but Itachi cut in. "It's a summon." Itachi told him. "Sometimes, it is used in place of messenger owls back home. It's much faster than a messenger bird."

"Oh..." Blaise opened his mouth, probably to say more, but Gamakichi interrupted him with an impatient grunt.

"So...you're just going to follow me around until I write a reply?" Sakura asked.

Gamakichi huffed. "Course." He huffed in annoyance when all Sakura did was stare. "What're ye waitin for?" He asked. "Open in!"

"I have a bad feeling." Sakura muttered, but she slowly opened the scroll. She stared at it for a second before it slipped from her fingers. She collapsed backwards onto the couch and slowly brought her hands up to her face. She covered her eyes and let out a whimper. "Gods...I think I'm blind."

Curious, Itachi reached out and picked it up.

He then promptly rolled it up again.

"I...see..." The Uchiha's hand twitched, but he suppressed the urge to rub his eyes. He sat down on the couch too, and gently rubbed Sakura's hands. "I see." He held up the scroll in one hand and made a handsign with another.

Sakura jumped and reached out blindly. "No! Don't!" She scrambled over the Uchiha and Itachi let her. She grabbed the scroll and rolled away.

Itachi glanced at her. "For all we know, it could be a ploy to incapacitate us. For those of us with a Dojutsu, blindness can be a fatal blow to our ninja career." His lips twitched at the corner and Sakura giggled.

"Okay, I got this." Sakura opened her eyes slowly. "Should I read it?"

Itachi shrugged.

"Okay. Should I add all the volume and stuff?"

Itachi sighed. "No."

"Okay...here goes!" Sakura leaned back a little. "' _Hi Sakura-chan! plus Itachi-teme, Neji-teme and Shikamaru-teme.'_ "

Itachi already felt the headache coming.

"' _I wrote a thousand letters to you but you didn't reply! Then tou-chan told me that you were away on a super boring mission with lots of numbers and calculation and politics and no fighting and fun whatsoever.'_ "

Sakura glanced at Itachi. "' _Anyways, I'm sooooo glad I'm not there. Awesome ninja like me deserve awesome missions. I'm not saying you're not awesome, Sakura-chan, cause you are. If your teammates suck, tell me and I'll beat them up! Right now, Ero-sennin and I are at the Hotspring land, cause the Ero-sennin needs more research material.'_ "

Sakura winced. "' _This dude seriously sucks, Sakura-chan. He rarely teaches me much. I should complain.'_ "

Gamakichi huffed at this. "He complains about it all the time."

"' _I also found out that he's the author of the books Kakashi-sensei reads. I guess sucky lame people like similar things.'"_

Suddenly, the writing became a lot neater. It was still written by Naruto, but if felt as though all the goofiness was gone, and replaced by something serious.

"' _Tou-chan told me that Sasuke-teme sent over his first report thing.'_ "

Itachi sat up, whipping around to face Sakura.

 _"He said he's fine, and not to worry.'_ " Sakura was careful not to look at Itachi. "' _Apparently, the pedo snake dude took another body or something, and has a few years before he can try and take over Teme's body, or something. He says he's fine, though, and Teme's a pretty bad liar, so I know he's telling the truth.'_ "

Sakura's worried face melted into a gentle smile. "' _So you and Itachi-teme don't have to worry about Sasuke-teme and focus on your boring mission, okay?'_ "

* * *

For the next few days, Gamakichi hopped around the school after Sakura.

Neji and Shikamaru had both been shocked when a toad popped up in the library, where Team Riki had been meeting up, but a few quick, to-the-point words from Itachi calmed them down enough for Sakura to explain.

They received a lot of creeped out looks and a few teachers approached them, demanding an explanation.

Finally, Sakura decided to just write a reply.

She sat down in the common room and pulled out of the letter scrolls she had brought along. She then summoned her calligraphy set. She rolled the scroll open and held it down with a paperweight Naruto and Sasuke had gotten her as a mission souvenir.

Itachi sat down wordlessly beside her and pulled the shodo sumi and suzuri toward himself. He poured a few drops of water, then began grinding the ink stone.

Sakura watched him for a while, the familiar feeling making her feel warm inside. Itachi's hand movements were smooth, and the suzuri gracefully skimmed over the shodo.

Sakura knew that Naruto wouldn't feel anything even if she did reply to his letter with a scroll pull of spray painted words.

However, hearing from Naruto, and about Sasuke, had sent a wave of homesickness through her.

The familiar sight of the calligraphy set seemed to calm Itachi down too.

For once, they didn't mind the confused looks shot in their direction, and allowed themselves to bask in the familiarity something so simple bought them.

* * *

The next day, Gamakichi returned to Naruto with a dramatic puff of smoke, right in the middle of the Dining Hall.

He promised not to tell Naruto of their real mission location, because they all knew that Minato had lied to Naruto about the contents of their mission, for Naruto was sure to make a fuss.

Though Gamakichi hadn't been much of a threat to anyone, almost everyone seemed to be pleased to see him leave.

After all, it probably wasn't too comfortable sitting next to a toad that could flatten you with a single jump.

* * *

The short moment of fun and freedom Gamakichi's presence may have brought them left with the summon, and once again, Team Riki was faced with their mission.

Fueled by their sudden homesickness, they poured out everything they had ever learned or read into their mission.

They were shinobi. They fought to win, even if the plan took months to put together.

At the moment, it seemed as if the only one who truly believed that Draco was working for Voldemort was Harry Potter. However, the two had been enemies since their first year in Hogwarts, and Sakura knew that his opinion would seem biased to most.

And so, she chose Saturday mornings, where both Harry and Draco would be in Apparition lessons, to tackle the 'Cabinet problem'.

Draco had passed them the noted given to him by Borgin, and they fiddled around with it.

The blond had also told them that the second cabinet was at the store Borgin and Burkes, and that was enough for Team Riki to figure out a lot of things.

* * *

Classes proceeded as normal.

After showing Draco the progress they had made on the cabinet, it wasn't too hard to convince the boy to take a few days off while they continued working on it.

It was obvious the boy was exhausted.

They sat through their lesson with like any other student paying attentions. They left clones in bed during the night whenever they needed to extra time to make a detour someplace or another.

Sakura reported Harry lurking around the Room of Requirements during the weekend, but when they got there, he was nowhere to be seen.

He was there, though, so the two passed by as if nothing had happened.

Somehow, the boy had hidden himself from view, and that added another thing to the list of things Team Riki had to look into.

Thanks to the cabinet, they had found out just how useful the Room of Requirements could be. Draco told them how it worked and the Shinobi wasted no time in conjuring one of the Uchiha compound.

They would sneak out at night, leaving clones behind, and run around in their.

Though they hadn't done any training for a while, something that made Itachi moody once in awhile and Neji pale just at the thought, the familiar movements of kata came back to them and soon, they felt like they were back home, in Konoha, warming up before a spar.

Sakura and Neji would work on some of the collaboration techniques their Byakugans allowed them to perform while Itachi took pleasure in seeing how much of the forest he could burn down with his Katon technique. Shikamaru spent his time lying around watching the clouds, something he hadn't been able to do for a while, but he did join in their partner spars.

They would return to their House Common rooms and like every night, spend the rest of the night there, always half away.

Even if they did actually manage to doze off, the scuffling of their slowly waking housemates would wake them. Some people used to question their 'early rise', for they were always awake and reading when people came down, but now, they didn't even question it.

Then a similar day would repeat, with little bits varying, like the lessons they have that day, or how much trees Itachi could burn down or how many clouds Shikamaru managed to count before he dozed off.

However, Team Riki also knew that these peaceful days would never last.

Voldemort was planning something big, and speaking from experience, they knew it would be a war.

Decisions had to be made, and Neji, Shikamaru and Sakura understood that this duty fell into the hands of Itachi, their team captain.

They knew that Minato's words that he trusted them to make the right decisions was a praise they might not be worthy of, and also a huge appliance of pressure.

But it also allowed them to finally see the biggest picture.

The future of not only Konoha, but all of the Shinobi nations, may depend on how they dealt with the problem at hand.

Thought Voldemort didn't know the full extent of their powers, all four of them knew that their skills and techniques interested Voldemort greatly.

The man had known that a different dimension existed, and he also knew how to make contact through the two worlds. None of them would be surprised if something drove the man into their world.

Finally, during one of their breaks, Itachi gathered Team Riki in the gardens. He ordered both Neji and Sakura to keep an eye out on the surroundings, and all three of them knew that after looking through everything they had gathered throughout the past few weeks, Itachi had come to a decision.

"It is obvious that Voldemort is trying to accomplish something he failed to do years ago. However, allowing Voldemort control over his world is dangerous." Itachi said briskly. "With the power and influence he has gathered, he could easily bring trouble over to our dimension."

"So we're going to stop him?" Sakura asked.

Itachi narrowed his eyes. "Though we cannot risk outright opposing him, we must slow him down. Once it seems like his side is winning, loop holds with definitely appear." Itachi's eyes gleamed, in the way they knew it did when thousands of strategies and plans ran through his mind. "It would be best if he crumbles from within." He said.

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him." Sakura murmured. "He's got Dragon running around, doing something. I say we tag along on that."

Itachi nodded. "We must act carefully from here." He said. "We cannot afford any mistakes."

* * *

A hoarse cry of 'MURDER IN THE BATHROOM!' was what had led to Sakura entering the boy's bathroom for the first time on her own accord.

Harry looked up from where he had been crouched, eyes wide and full of fear. Draco lay beside him, lying in a pool of blood. Sakura decided that there wasn't as much blood as it first appeared; the floor was covered in water, and the blood had spread.

Harry opened his mouth, but Sakura shoved past him, her hands already glowing with healing chakra.

Harry watched, his mouth hanging open from shock, and he watched the wound on Draco's chest slowly heal.

The door to the bathroom was thrown open and once again, Harry looked up in terror.

Sakura knew that it was Snape without even looking. She had sensed him approaching.

The professor took one look at the situation, before crouching on the other side of Draco. By then, the wounds on the blond had knitted themselves together.

Sakura drew back and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand out of habit. She ignored the feeling of eyes boring into her and ran her hands over Draco again, just to make sure.

"Miss Haruno." Sakura looked up at Snape's brisk voice. "I would like to talk to you later about..." He glanced pointedly around the toilet. "The occurrence here."

Sakura nodded.

"But for now, please bring Mr Malfoy to the hospital wing."

Sakura didn't argue. She didn't even bother telling him that there was nothing the 'hospital wing' could do if she hadn't been able to.

She got to her feet, having no problem with supporting Draco's weight, and led him out of the toilet.

* * *

The news of the happening in the toilet had traveled far. Sakura had been called to Scape's office, where she told him that she had been walking past the toilet when she heard the ghost's screams. She told him that she had healed Draco with techniques taught back home.

Snape had nodded, and though Sakura couldn't really tell if he believed her or not, he let her go without much trouble.

Later that day, Sakura, accompanied by Itachi, visited Draco. The blond looked up when they stopped beside his bed.

"I believe you could use some good news?" Sakura asked.

Draco sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Itachi dumped dry clothes he had been carrying on his bed. Draco glanced at it, then looked up again. "Thanks."

Itachi nodded.

"Good news?" Draco asked.

"The cabinet!" Sakura grinned. "It works!"

Draco stared at her for a few seconds.

Sakura waved a hand in front of his face. "Hello?" She called. "It-"

"Works?" Draco sat up. "Really?"

Sakura nodded. "I've made sure. Small objects, and maybe a mouse or two." She crossed her arms. "It appears on the other side too, I've checked."

Draco didn't ask her _how_ she had checked. He simply slumped down in the bed and closed his eyes.

* * *

A few days later, Draco asked to talk to Sakura, where he uttered a few words so quiet Sakura had to strain to hear and not meeting her eye.

"I have to kill him." He said. "I have to kill Dumbledore."

If he had expected her to pull away at the mention of murder, he was wrong.

She didn't show any signs of leaving. "Do you have any idea why Voldemort is trying to kill Dumbledore?" Sakura asked.

Draco tensed at her bluntness but shook his head.

When she didn't elaborate, he finally looked up, and all he saw was the pinkette gentle smile.

Because she had seen right through him.

Beneath he fear he felt for Voldemort and the consequences should he fail at this task, he knew as well.

He wasn't a killer.

Sakura knew that, and she also understood the situation he was put in. He had to kill in order to not be killed.

It was almost like back at Konoha.

Those who hadn't had their first kill yet could understand what it meant to kill, but the didn't _understand_ what it meant to kill. Knowing how to kill and actually killing were a huge difference.

Sakura had come to understand that she, who could lock away any regret and guilt from a kill, was very privileged.

You got used to killing, but you would never truly be able to escape the knowledge that your actions had led to the death of another.

Sakura's Inner allowed her to forget these emotions. She could forget and not recognize them when the time came to take a life.

What had made the Haruno clan one of the most powerful clans was not their skill, but their ability to ignore emotions.

* * *

Sakura locked herself in the toilet that night. Once she had made sure that her roommates were asleep and she had secured the door, she pulled out a scroll from her seal and channeled her chakra into it. She reached in and pulled out a scroll, which she placed on the floor. She got down on her knees, then bit her thumb and smeared the blood over it.

A series of marks, written in her blood, spread over the scroll. There was a pause, before with a small puff of smoke, the scroll vanished.

Sakura leaned back on her hands and closed her eyes.

A few seconds later, she felt a presence right behind her and leaned backwards to look at the newcomer upside down.

"Hi, Zetsu."

Black Zetsu's form rippled rapidly. He blinked his yellow eyes at her. Zetsu had been known to serve under Kaguya, and as the head of the Otsutsuki clan, he now served her.

" **Hello, Sakura-sama."**

Sakura grinned, then flipped herself over to face him. "I'm glad you came."

Black Zetsu blinked. " **Where is this, Sakura-sama."**

Sakura waved her arms dramatically. "A dimension where a weaker version of chakra is used." She shook her head to clear her thoughts. "Anyways, there's a reason I called you here, Zetsu. There is something I need you to do for me."

* * *

"How are we going to deal with this?" Neji asked.

Itachi ran a finger over the blade of his kunai, as if he were checking it's sharpness.

None of them mentioned that the Uchiha spent nearly all his free time polishing and caring for his weapons.

Sakura thought of the Haruno Tunnels, which was an underground structure that began at the Haruno compound and snaked underground, throughout all the Shinobi Nations. Not even _she_ knew where the furthest ones led, and since they were only accessible to those who carried Haruno, or Otsutsuki blood, they had never been found, let alone explored.

Sakura narrowed her eyes a little.

But she could bring people along with her into the tunnel.

Maybe...

"There's something I want to try out." The males of Team Riki curiously turned to Sakura.

* * *

Team Riki and Draco met up in the room of requirements. When the Malfoy arrived, all four of the shinobi were already there. They were a few hours early, and that gave them time to make any last minute preparations.

"Harry Potter and Dumbledore are currently out." Neji reported. "However, it hasn't been any longer than their usual outings and I suspect they will be back soon."

The first thing Team Riki did was strip out of their robes, revealing their shinobi attire underneath.

Itachi pulled out his weapon scroll and summoned its content. Draco's eyes widened at the wide variety of blades. Itachi inspected each of them with sharp eyes before slipped them into his pouch.

Sakura summoned two pouches and after making sure that they were full of shuriken and kunai, she strapped each to her thigh. She then strapped another one around her waist, filling this one with senbon and a vial or two of poison.

Neji, who mainly depended on his Byakugan, and Shikamaru, who was more of a support type, each grabbed a few kunai and a handful of shuriken.

"We're aren't going to war, you know?" Shikamaru muttered, eyeing Itachi's pouch, which had impressively managed to fit all the weapons.

Itachi grunted. "It is better to be prepared." He said simply.

Neji shrugged, showing his lack of interest in the topic.

Sakura twirled a small smoke bomb on the tip of her finger. Shikamaru warily watched her.

"Would you like one?" Itachi held out a kunai towards Draco, who hadn't said anything so far.

Draco glanced at the weapon, then slowly raised his hands. "Maybe not."

Itachi shrugged.

"At least take one of these." Sakura tossed the blond a small sphere, only for Neji to snatch it out of the air.

"Did you just toss a smoke bomb at him?" Shikamaru asked.

Draco blinked.

"Yes?" Sakura frowned. "Yes, I did."

Neji sighed. He carefully handed Draco the smoke bomb. "Be careful. Don't knock it around too much, or it might explode. If something happens, throw it. It'll give you enough cover to escape."

"Doesn't he have his wand?" Shikamaru asked. "Can't that thing buy him more than enough time?"

Itachi frowned. "Through the observations made during our time spent here, I believe it is safe to say that these wands are not a practical a weapon as it is a tool to aid in daily life."

"It's not like _we're_ going to be fighting him." Shikamaru insisted. "To us, it maybe nothing more than a wooden stick, but to others, it seems to be effective enough."

Sakura hummed. "The reason we're here in the first place is to help the Dragon." She said. "He wont need a weapon." She stood up. "They'll be here soon."

* * *

Team Riki stood alongside Draco as he let the Death Eaters into the school. The handles began turning slowly, and even Sakura could feel the tension in the was a click, and the doors began to open.

Black smoke filled the air as the cabinet doors opened.

Draco flinched back just a little, but Shikamaru grabbed his arm to stop him from going too far.

"Mutts are good at smelling fear." He told him quietly. "Don't bother trying to hide it." He looked up, straight through the smoke. "But you have to face it."

"I guess the protection seals around the school doesn't affect this thing." Sakura murmured.

Bellatrix was the first to step out.

Sakura glanced over the Death Eaters Voldemort had sent. The Carrow twins, Rowle, Yaxley, Gibbon, and the werewolf they had heard about, Fenrir Greyback.

Draco flinched away from the werewolf, fear evident in his eyes. Neji slipped in between the blond and the man, arms limp by his side.

Greyback sneered at him but Neji didn't even flinch.

The shinobi ignored the sneers and leers they received, faces blank and emotionless as any trained ANBU.

"You may know impressive spells." Bellatrix cackled. "But we'll see what you're truly made of."

Sakura blinked at her dismissively. "A head start would be appreciated."

Bellatrix snickered. "Time to fail. Of course."

Sakura blinked at the woman, boredom evident in her eyes, then turned to Itachi. "A word of warning. The Order of the Phoenix is patrolling the area. There are those who seem to be aware of our arrival."

Itachi nodded without batting an eye. He gestured towards Draco, and the blond flicked his wand and the Dark Mark appeared in the sky, right above the Astronomy tower.

"Neji." At Itachi's order, the Hyuuga activated his Byakugan. The veins around his eyes prodded out and he narrowed his eyes.

"Already headed towards the tower." He reported. "He seems to be weakened considerably." He paused. "Harry Potter is close by."

"We have orders not to touch him." Itachi turned to Shikamaru. "Keep him away." He said. "A genjutsu should do, but if it comes down to it, do not hesitate to use your Kagemane techniques."

Shikamaru bowed, all signed of the usual laziness gone. He body flickered away, leaving a puff of smoke behind.

"People are beginning to gather." Neji said.

Itachi nodded, and his eyes bled red as his Sharingan came to life. He turned to look into the shadows of one of the school pillars, then turned back to those gathered in front of him. "I will keep them occupied for a while." He shot the Death Eaters, who had begun to shuffle around impatiently, a calm look. "I will trap the guard in one place." He said. "Then you will be free to hunt down the trapped mice one by one."

Fenrir let out what might have passed as a chuckle.

"You two will move on ahead." Itachi ordered his two teammates. "Neji, keep an lookout." He turned to Sakura. "Accompany Draco. If you come across anyone, knowck them out. However, if they see you before you are able to do so..." Itachi's red eyes gleamed in the dark. "Seal the body away." He said. "We'll dispose of it later."

Both of them nodded.

"Go."

Sakura grabbed Draco by the arm, and the three of them vanished in a puff of smoke.

The three of them appeared at the bottom of the stairs leading to the top of the Astronomy tower.

Neji drew back a little, gesturing with his hands that Shikamaru had successfully stopped Harry Potter.

"Now, Dragon." Sakura turned around. She grabbed onto the older blond's shoulders and made him look at her. "Here's our plan."

* * *

Once his teammates had vanished, Itachi turned around to glance back into the shadows. He lifted his hands, then hesitated, and instead, pulled out his wand.

He wordlessly cast a 'Lumos' spell, and the corner lit up. A cowering man was brought into view. His eyes were wide, and his mouth was open in a wordless scream.

"Oh~" Bellatrix let out a cackle. She pointed her wand mockingly at the man, frowning when he didn't move or cower or anything.

Itachi moved to stand in front of the immobilized man. "Order of the Phoenix, I presume?" He asked. When the man didn't move, he turned towards the Death Eater. "A moment, please."

He cast a silencing jutsu in the area, one similar to the technique used in the Hokage's office, then turned back to the man. His Sharingan flickered, before morphing into the Mangekyou Sharingan.

The Order of the Phoenix member looked right into Itachi's crimson eyes, and his eyes glazed over.

A second later, he began to scream.

* * *

 **Warning: Was rushed.**

* * *

 _ **Darque: So, I just completed the summary research on Harry Potter Book seven.**_

 **Raven: Meh. I'll leave all the itty bitty stuff to you.**

 _ **Darque: I don't mind, cause it's fun, actually. I already have a couple of ideas.**_

 **Raven: Looking forward to them, then.**

 _ **Darque:...**_

 **Raven:...Whoa.**

 _ **Darque: What?**_

 **Raven: You actually sounded kind of...nice.**

 _ **Darque: Sounded nice? What you talkin 'bout? I'm nice all the time.**_

 **Raven: Yes, because offering to remove the eyeballs of 'blind idiots' and cut someone's hair cause you like the sound of snipping scissors makes you a wonderful person.**

 _ **Darque: Actually, I think your eyes will look prettier if your**_ ** _sclera_** _ **was red as well. You like chilly sauce or ketchup?**_

 **Raven: Strawberry jam, please.**

 **Read and Review!**


	7. Chapter 7: Of Death and Reality

_**Chapter SEVEN**_

Formations were something that came naturally to them, regardless of the number of people they were currently working with. Neji took up rear guard and Sakura led the way up to the top of the tower. The pinkette placed a finger over her lips then made a hand sign. Neji nodded in understanding. This time, the Hyuuga grabbed Draco's arm, and concealed under Sakura's genjutsu, they body flickered into the room.

Draco seemed to have picked up some of their pattern, for he had drawn his wand before entering, and the moment they landed, he lashed out with his wand. "Expelliarmus!"

The genjutsu was broken by Draco's voice, but by then, it was too late for Dumbledore to do anything and the professor's wand flew out of his hand and into Draco's.

However, the man didn't show any signs of panic. "Good evening, Draco." He glanced at Sakura and Neji. "Neji, Sakura."

Draco didn't reply. instead, he rapidly glanced around the room, as if to check that no one was here.

"We're the only ones here." Neji told him patiently. "The closest people to the tower would be...Harry Potter and Shikamaru."

Dumbledore hummed knowingly. "Then, I believe that it is safe to assume that Itachi and Shikamaru are also aware?"

Sakura nodded, face void of all emotions. "You assume correct."

Dumbledore closed his eyes for a second, then shifted his gaze to Draco.

"So, Draco, are you guys acting alone?" He asked.

Draco steeled himself. "No." He said. "There's backup. There are Death Eaters here tonight."

"Well, well." Dumbledore said. "You found a way in for them?"

"Yeah." Draco was breathing heavily. "We fixed a Vanishing Cabinet right under your nose!"

Both Sakura and Neji tensed. Giving out information like that to someone like Dumbledore might be dangerous.

"Ingenious." Dumbledore said. "Yet...I don't see them around. You seem unsupported."

Sakura and Neji stepped forward a little. "Unsupported?" Sakura asked.

"Those mutts are unnecessary." Neji continued. "Itachi is keeping them occupied." He narrowed his eyes. "We came ahead to complete a mission."

"Then, you must get along with it, my dear boy." Dumbledore said softly.

Draco hesitated, wand still clutched tightly in his grasp. He glanced uncertainly at Sakura, then Neji.

Dumbledore spoke up again. "Draco...you are not a killer."

"He doesn't have to be." Sakura said softly. "That's what we're here for."

"So you are going to kill me?" Dumbledore asked.

"That is the mission, yes." Sakura said.

"Sakura." Neji warned. "Snape."

The Potions master appeared at the doorway. He took one look at the situation before he slipped into the room. However, he made no move to help the Headmaster.

"So you _were_ the spy." Sakura murmured.

Snape shot her a calculating look.

"Severus." The headmaster greeted.

Snap just nodded, eyes blank. He eyed them a little more, before he pulled out his wand and slowly pointed it towards Dumbledore.

"My apologies, Professor, but this is our mission and we'll be doing this our way." Neji pulled out his own wand and pointed it at Dumbledore. The wizard calmly met Neji's Byakugan eyes, but probably did not expect the spell the Hyuuga cast. "Immobulus!"

The split second was enough for Sakura to vanish and reappear behind the man. "I'm sorry, Professor, but this is the best all of us can do." She whispered, so that only he could hear. "Don't worry, though."

Dumbledore looked at her from the corner of his eyes. "Is that supposed to reassure me?"

Sakura smiled softly, then drew a kunai.

* * *

Itachi glanced around the room of dead Order members. He eyed the corpse of Gibbon, who had been killed by friendly fire. He crouched beside him to check that he was truly dead, before he sealed the body into a scroll. No one said anything as the Uchiha stood up and wordlessly began to lead them towards the tower.

On their way, they encountered a few enemies. Upon sighting members of the school, Itachi stayed in the shadows, hidden by a genjutsu just to make sure. The Death Eaters seemed more than happy to fight.

Itachi watched Fenrir tear through the face of a redhead who Itachi guessed was a Weasley and shove him aside. Once there was no one fighting back, they went on their merry way towards the Astronomy tower.

The moment Itachi had stepped into the room at the top of the tower behind the other Death Eaters, the smell of blood hit his nose.

Sakura stood over the dead body of the headmaster, a bloody kunai in hand. He watched silently as she brought the crimson blade softly to her lips before she raised her left hand and cut into the soft flesh of her palm. Drops of blood seeped out of the wound and dripped onto the floor, vanishing into the crimson puddle of the headmaster's blood. "I promise." She said.

Itachi respectfully bowed his head, then glanced around the tower. "Where's Shikamaru?"

"Here." Shikamaru appeared, leaning lazily on the door frame.

"What do we do with the body?" Neji asked.

"Toss it off the tower." Itachi ordered. "Murder is usually conducted through the use of spells. The wizards won't know what to do with a body with a slash through the neck."

Sakura turned to Shikamaru "And Harry Potter?"

"I knocked him out." The Nara yawned.

"Any casualties?" Itachi asked, this time the question directed towards the Death Eaters. It was more of protocol instinct than real concern.

Fenrir sneered. "Rowle killed Gibbon." He snarled. "You took the body."

Itachi didn't even blink. "Is that it?" When no one said anything, he took it as a yes. He noted that no one from Hogwarts' side knew the truth behind Gibbon's death, for all witnesses had been killed, then he pulled out the scroll he had sealed the corpse within. He passed it wordlessly to Shikamaru, then once again turned to address the Death Eaters. "You need to leave." He said briskly. "My team and I will remain here; we still have our mission to play out."

Snape nodded stiffly.

"We will accompany you to the Room of Requirements. Shikamaru, take rearguard." Itachi ordered. "Sakura, Neji, cover us with your Byakugan."

He confirmed the multiple nods before turning back to the Death Eaters. "Let's head out."

"Several of the students and professors are approaching." Neji warned. "Professor McGonagall, Ginevra Weasley..."

"Sakura, cast a latent Genjutsu on the way." Itachi said. "We cannot afford to blow our cover here. A genjutsu should buy us enough time, but if it comes down to it, we'll have to pretend to fight."

They traveled at a fast pace through the school. Neji kept them updated on the positions of any approaching students, professors or Order members while Sakura and Itachi wove genjutsu to keep them away.

They reached the Room of Requirements without any problems and one by one, the Death Eaters darted through. Soon, there was only Draco and Snape felt behind with the shinobi.

"Professor, please tell Voldemort that Draco will be returning with us, presumably tomorrow." Itachi said.

Sakura nodded firmly. "We have things to take care of."

Snape nodded, shot Draco a look, then went through and vanished.

Team Riki changed out of their shinobi attire and back into their robes. While Sakura cleaned the blood off herself, Neji confirmed the gathering of the students in the Hospital Wing. Shikamaru summoned Gibbon's corpse. He draped it casually over his shoulder and Draco paled at the sight. They then wordlessly departed.

* * *

They arrived just as the wounded were being treated. Hermione was the first to notice their presence. "Hey."

Everyone turned to glance at them. Sakura slowly stepped deeper into the room, eyes moving rapidly around the room. "What...what's going on...?"

Her teammates stepped into view, casually surrounding Draco and a few gasps were heard. People warily eyed the body Shikamaru was dragging. "One of the...black mask people killed him by accident." The Nara offered. "We didn't know what to do with the body."

"The Death Eaters! Where did you see them? Do you know where they are?" Hermione stomped up to them. She glared at Draco warily but didn't ask him anything,

"They were running towards the gate." Itachi said, placing a hand on Sakura's shoulder.

"Attacked us when we came across them." Sakura added. "Once they were outside, they vanished."

"Did you recognize anyone?" Remus Lupin asked.

Sakura shook her eyes, frowning.

The man sighed.

A while later, Harry Potter was led into the Hospital room by Hagrid and Ginevra. His eyes glanced over Neville Longbottom, who was sleeping on one of the beds. Hermione rushed over to hug him, and Remus Lupin quickly approached him, looking worried.

Harry shot Draco a suspicious look, then quickly glanced around the people in the room, checking for injuries, before his eyes landed on Bill Weasley, whose face had been ripped grotesquely.

"Can't you fix that with a charm?" Harry asked Madam Pomfrey, who was dabbing at his wounds with some green ointment.

"Charms will not work on these." Madam Pomfrey said. "I tried everything I know, but nothing can cure werewolf bites.

"But it's not a full moon." Ron protested. "Greyback hadn't transformed, so Bill..."

"I don't think Bill will become a true werewolf." Lupin said. "But I doubt there won't be a contamination. These wounds are cursed. I are unlikely to fully hear and Bill might have some wolfish characteristics from now on."

"Dumbledore could probably help." Ron said. "Where is he? Bill fought those maniacs on Dumbledore's orders. He can't-"

"Dumbledore's dead, Ron." Ginny said, cutting him off.

"No!" Lupin exclaimed. He glanced widely around the room, as if waiting for someone to tell him otherwise.

"How...how did he die?" Nymphadora Tonks whispered. "How did it happen?"

"There was blood in the Astronomy Tower." Ginny said. "And his body was...at the bottom, on the ground."

"His neck was cut." Harry said. "With a knife, probably." He clasped a hand over his mouth, looking sick.

Hermione covered her own mouth and Ron gasped. Luna Lovegoods's lips were trembling. Madam Pomfrey burst into tears.

' _A reaction like this to a single death.'_ Sakura's Inner said. ' _They won't survive a war.'_

Harry turned to glance at Sakura, who he suddenly remembered to have healed healed Draco's Sectumsempra wound with the weird glow of her hands. "Sakura." The pinkette looked towards him. "Can't you heal him? I mean...I saw..." He glanced at Draco again then trailed off, not really wanting to mention the incident in the toilets.

Sakura blinked at him, before she glanced down at her hands. "I..."

Luckily, her teammates had recognized the blank look in her eyes she got when she talked to Inner and Neji quickly jumped to her defense. "Hold it." He said. "We were attacked by a group of people in black for a reason we didn't know, Shikamaru carried a dead person all the way here because we had no idea what to do with a corpse, and you just told us that the headmaster was killed rather brutally." His eyes hardened. "This...Bill isn't in a life or death situation." He said. "Let her calm down, will you?"

Sakura glanced down on her feet.

"Hang on. You said you were being housed by the Malfoys." Hermione said. "Don't you know anything?"

"Know what?" Shikamaru asked, a frown on his face. "That you think the people kind enough to offer us a place to stay while we go through education in Hogwarts was actually a group of evil people who worship someone who was supposed to be dead?" He ran a hand through his hair.

Itachi had stiffened and Sakura simply buried her face into her hands.

"What's Malfoy doing here anyways?" Ginny snapped. "His father's a Death Eater!"

"I believe that will be enough." Everyone looked up to see Professor McGonagall enter the wing, followed by three more people.

Itachi instantly picked up that they were Bill Weasley's parents, and the girl was Bill's fiance, or something along those lines.

Itachi crouched beside Sakura and brushed her hair, catching a glimpse of her blank eyes. He stood back up, a comforting hand on her shoulder.

After a series of love confession Itachi believed were very out of place, Hagrid marched into the room, covered in blood, shaking and crying. "I've...I've done it, Professor, " he managed to choke out. "I've moved the body."

The rest was a blur. Team Riki allowed themselves to be escorted out of the room alongside everybody. Harry Potter was led away by Professor McGonagall to talk and the rest of them were sent back to their dorm rooms.

* * *

All lessons and examinations were postponed. Team Riki watched the effects of Dumbledore's death spread throughout the school faster than a forest fire. Students were already being picked up by their parents. A few others were due to leave after the funeral.

Team Riki attended Dumbledore's funeral as well. They stayed politely silent throughout the whole thing. All of them had packed to leave on the Hogwarts express, which was due to depart an hour after the funeral.

No one had approached them about the whole Malfoy thing. Draco was also very quiet, barely talking through the last day.

Once the funeral was officially over, students began to gather their things and filing towards the Hogwarts Express.

Harry, Ron and Hermione had drawn away from the crowd, but even from the distance and the limited visibility through the crowd of people, Sakura recognized the way they talked to each other.

It reminded her of Team Seven.

None of the 'Golden Trio', nor anyone else for the matter, noticed the crows keeping an eye on the whole thing.

* * *

The train ride back was very awkward, to say the least.

Pansy and Draco's usual followers had looked shocked when Draco simply brushed past them to coop himself up in a compartment with the Shinobi. He seemed to find comfort in the small nothings they talked about. He listened but didn't say anything.

The moment they had returned to the Malfoy manor, they were immediately called to report to Voldemort. It seemed that while the Dark lord had received several reports from the Death Eaters that had been present, he wanted another from them. Narcissa appeared to lead her son away. Draco glanced worriedly at the shinobi but followed his mother through the corridor and vanished into one of the rooms, leaving the Shinobi to present themselves to the Dark lord.

Itachi gave him a detailed description of the events. Neji took over from where they had split, and they waited quietly while Voldemort mulled over everything he had heard.

He dismissed them wordlessly and the dismissed wasted no time in exiting the room.

* * *

A few days later, Team Riki were called to the room Voldemort used as his office. Itachi knocked polity and they entered only when permission was given.

All of them knew which fights to pick.

Voldemort nodded briskly at them, eyes slightly narrowed. "I have a job for you."

Itachi lowered his head. "Of course."

Voldemort leaned back in his chair. "A group of my Death Eaters were captured and sent to Azkaban a year or so back." He said. "Your task is to escort them back here." He gestured towards a file. "That contains information on the prison, as well as photos of the Death Eaters. Take your time to prepare." He dismissed them with a flick of his hand.

The four of them returned to their room as quickly as possible, and instantly began sorting through the information given to them. They all painted the layout of the prison to memory, then took turns reading the files on the prisoners.

"Voldemort is in no hurry to get these people back." Sakura hummed.

Itachi nodded. "I have noticed as well."

Neji summoned a stack of paper from a scroll. "I found this when I was looking into the past events related to Voldemort." He handed it to Itachi, who skimmed through it. "Death Eater terror continues..." Itachi narrowed his eyes. "I guess this has something to do with the failed attempt at stealing the prophecy?"

"The captured Death Eaters match." Shikamaru said.

Itachi nodded. "This prophecy must be the one prophesying Voldemort's defeat."

"This dude here is Dragon's father." Sakura said. "And this 'Nott' must be Theodore's father."

"We could ask them questions." Neji said slowly. "I believe this 'failure' is what led to Voldemort leaving them for so long."

Itachi nodded. "We need a little more information." He said. "We will head out in two days time, five in the morning, sharp."

* * *

Draco had been fairly paranoid and suspicious when Sakura casually asked him about the prophecy incident a while ago. Finally, he confessed that the lack of rescue had indeed, been a punishment for the mission failure. He then admitted that he thinks that his own mission to kill Dumbledore had also been punishment against the family as a whole.

Sakura, having found out something from someone else's point of view, had dropped it there. It felt personal to press for more.

She politely wished him goodnight before withdrawing to Team Riki's HQ, where they shared out the information they had managed to fish out.

They left the next day, after the sun had set. Team Riki traveled under the cover of the night. They were clad in their shinobi attires for comfort and camouflage. Itachi led them over the rooftops in the cities, then through the trees when the began to appear, running them towards Azkaban using the map Voldemort had given them.

Getting in had been relatively easy, and the 'prison guards' had been more than willing to let them in. However, Sakura felt like she understood why prison breaks had been considered rare. Her Inner and her history as a Shinobi made it so that the feeling of having their 'positive feelings' absorbed didn't affect her as much, but it made her feel empty, and she didn't like it.

The Death Eaters had been gathered in a single cell, probably having been moved prior to their arrival.

Itachi politely nodded at the group. Most of them had skin too pale to be considered healthy. They were thin, and dark bags were present underneath their eyes, but compared to someone like Bellatrix, they all seemed pretty sane.

"On the orders of Voldemort, we are to escort you to the Malfoy Manor." Itachi said.

Lucius Malfoy narrowed his eyes a little, but none of the Death Eaters commented when Team Riki fell into formation around them.

Their return journey took much longer than when they were heading towards Azkaban. Sakura felt fidgety, traveling at civilian pace. She had healed any injuries which might slow them down more than necessary, but it took them much longer than what the Shinobi were used to.

There was no one there when they entered the outer gardens, but an elf popped up, alerting them that Voldemort was waiting for them in the library. Itachi once again took the lead, then stepped to the side to reveal the Death Eaters once they had stepped into the view of the Dark Lord.

As the rescued Death Eaters lowered their heads respectively, Voldemort nodded dismissively at the Shinobi. He passed them another scroll, then gestured with his hand for them to leave. They did so without having to be asked twice.

* * *

Sakura had done a lot of things, but not even she had stormed in on a council meeting.

Then again, it wasn't exactly a Council Meeting, but it was similar enough.

Sakura had to admit, she now understood why people did the dramatic 'slam the door open' thing when they entered a room. The Death Eaters currently talking instantly went quiet and everyone present turned to look at them. Itachi pushed past her, probably to stop her from saying something stupid. He marched into the room and his team fell into formation around him.

Sakura eyed the white snake wrapped around Voldemort, reminded of Orochimaru and one of his many snake summons. She then looked at the person spinning slowly in the ceiling. She shrugged, then turned to look at Itachi.

"Voldemort." That was all the greeting the Uchiha offered the man and several of the Death Eaters stiffened at the lack of humility. However, none of them commented when their lord didn't say anything.

Itachi stopped next to Voldemort's chair and handed him a scroll. He then nodded stiffly. "The Order are planning to move Harry Potter at Dusk coming Sunday, to the house of an Order member." He gestured towards Sakura and Neji, who had gone out to scout a while ago.

"This house is surrounded by a countless number of protection spells." Neji said. "I believe it would be impossible to breach it."

Itachi turned back to the Dark Lord. "They suspect that the Ministry has been infiltrated by your men and crossed out the Auror Office." He said. "They also crossed out apparition as a method of transport, for they feared detection." He said.

Voldemort narrowed his eyes and linked his hands in front of his face, deep in thought. He then gestured towards the figure suspended over the table.

"Do you know her?" Voldemort asked.

Itachi nodded in behalf of the team.

The woman was struggling against invisible bonds and was pleading for Snape to help her.

At the silent command, Itachi opened his mouth. "Charity Burbage, Professor of Muggle Studies." He said.

Voldemort nodded. He eyed the woman with anger and contempt in his gaze. "Now, Itachi, why don't you and your teammates entertain us?" He asked. "I heard that your work with Dumbledore was rather...unique."

Draco shot them a glance, his gaze full of horror.

Itachi didn't react, and instead, he simply nodded. "As you wish." He glanced over at his teammates.

Sakura instantly played along. "We could burn her." She said. "Amaterasu burns everything, but is very slow."

"You should just punch her." Shikamaru said. "You like punching things." Sakura shot him an annoyed look and the two began bickering softly.

"Why not cast a genjutsu?" Neji asked Itachi. "You Uchiha's seem pretty proud of them."

Itachi let out a "Hn." He eyed the Hyuuga. "Why don't you press a tenketsu or something?"

The Death Eaters began shuffling nervously and they kept shooting swift looks towards Voldemort. However, the man looked clearly amused as the shinobi argued over methods of killing.

Charity Burbage had gone quite long ago. Her eyes were wide and full of panic.

"Think of Ibiki." Shikamaru suggested. "He's good at these kinds of things."

"He is an interrogator, not a torturer." Neji replied.

" _I say we cut her open."_ Sakura finally said.

The males of Team Riki stiffened. They turned to look at Sakura, who smiled innocently at them.

"Inner." Itachi nodded.

" _So, what'd you say?"_ Inner Sakura asked. " _We can see how long we can keep her alive."_ She held up her hand, green healing chakra engulfing it.

Itachi glanced over at Voldemort, who seemed very pleased with the way thing were going.

It seemed as though the Professor's death would depend on how long it took for the shinobi to become bored of screams.

* * *

"Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley are planning their departure." Itachi said one day. His summon vanished in a puff of smoke.

Sakura raised the kunai she had been sharpening towards the light. "That was expected, right?"

Shikamaru yawned and nodded slowly. "The question here is, what are we going to do?"

"Contacting them would be the best course if we look at convenience alone." Neji said. "But everyone will be looking for them. We might get caught or they might let it slip, and then it will be over for both of us."

"And if they're even a tiny bit smart, they probably wont trust us." Sakura said. "We could send a summon, but that could give us away."

Itachi linked his hands in front of him. "We cannot afford to let them die." He said. "While we are more than capable in destroying the Horcruxes and taking on the Death Eaters, we will need the aid of a large number in the mass invasion Voldemort in planning. Harry Potter is seen as the only hope in defeating Voldemort. He is the only one that can raise the moral of the people."

"So we watch over them." Neji said. "We can patrol the area around them if we're close enough." 

"That's the best we can do." Shikamaru said. "We can't risk anything more."

Itachi nodded. "Sakura and I will take turns sending out our summons." He said. "Keep your guard up." He added, much more quietly. "Things are beginning to move. We cannot risk any mistakes."

* * *

The next major meeting Team Riki were called to was to discuss the plan to kill Harry Potter as he left his muggle home.

Voldemort had ordered them away from the attack team. "You are too precious a piece to lose." He had said. "I need you to return to Hogwarts the coming year."

Team Riki had accepted this without asking any questions.

The moment Voldemort and thirty or so Death Eaters left, Team Riki withdrew from the meeting room. Itachi and Sakura each sent out their summons to keep an eye on the events. The next few hours were very tense. They could hear someone running across outside their room once in awhile.

Itachi's summon was the first to return. It appeared in a sudden puff of smoke and cawed softly. Once it had landed on the Uchiha's arm, it let out a few more soft cries before it vanished.

"Harry Potter escaped." Itachi said.

Shikamaru let out the breath he didn't realize he had been holding. "We thought he would." He pointed out. "But it's never a good idea to depend fully on theory."

Neji grunted.

A few seconds later, Sakura's summon returned. She quietly confirmed Itachi's report.

"I believe we can expect for Voldemort to be in a bad mood." Itachi said.

* * *

Itachi's guess was correct.

For the next few days, the screams of a man they faintly recognized echoed throughout the manor.

"Ollivander." Neji confirmed casually.

Curses flew around more often too, as the Dark lord took his anger out on his Death Eaters at the smallest of mistakes.

A while after that, Team Riki were summoned, this time to aid in the interrogation of Rufus Scrimgeour. While they had heard nothing but bad rumors about the man from Harry and his friends, they were impressed when the man was quiet to his last breath.

While they had failed to retrieve the information on Harry Potter's location, since Scrimgeour was dead, Voldemort moved on to the next part of his plan. He had his Death Eaters place Pius Thicknesse under the Imperius curse, then installed him as the next Minister of Magic.

Itachi had to admit that this was a good move. The takeover had been smooth and quiet, and by the time people had begun to have their suspicions, the Ministry was under the control of Voldemort.

The Daily Prophet was under his control too, and with that, they had nearly all the bases covered.

Death Eaters could now use spells without the fear of being detained, and it didn't take them long to break through all the protection spells which had been cast over the Burrow.

The new school term was also approaching. Voldemort had made it compulsory for all young witches and wizards to attend Hogwarts. Home schooling and sending children abroad was now not allowed.

Somehow, Team Riki managed to balance school preparations, missions given to them by Voldemort, aiding in interrogation and their self assigned research. They sent out summons and shadow clones and often slipped out when they had free time in order to continue their research regarding the Horcruxes.

They often went around the country, capturing people under Voldemort's order. One of their most recent catches was a man names Mykew Gregorovitch, who was, apparently, a wandmaker with enough skill to rival Ollivander. They delivered him to the Dark Lord, then quickly left before he began his brutal interrogation.

Apparently, watching Team Riki torture some of the prisoners to death had become a thing. Voldemort called out to them on days where he was in an especially bad a mood and had them kill some unlucky prisoner.

The Death Eaters watched in silence, some enjoying the way Shikamaru just sat down in a puddle of blood because he was bored, or when Sakura ran a blood soaked hand through her pink hair, giving it a crimson dye.

* * *

One day, Draco approached them as they were getting rid of the corpse of a boy who had had the misfortune of being born as the son of a man who had defied Voldemort.

"How do you do it?" He asked, eyes blank. He watched Itachi burn the corpse, already used to the scene.

"Do what?" Sakura asked, from where she had been perched on the dinning table. She had been put in charge of cleaning the blood, and it seemed as though she had already finished her job.

"Kill people so easily...so...brutally?" He winced at his own words. "Why aren't you affected?"

Sakura's laid back grin vanished, being replaced with something serious. "You have to understand, Draco, that there is something that makes you and me different...you and us different."

Draco had tensed at the use of his name; Sakura had always referred to him as 'Dragon'.

"Just because we don't look like it doesn't mean we feel sorry for the people we've killed." Sakura said. "They were innocent. Still, we've seen things, done things, far more worse than anything we've come across here." Sakura said softly. "We grew up in a place where the number of kills represent how skilled we are, and in turn how much we can earn in order to support ourselves. We've just gotten used to it, because this is out reality." She hopped off her seat and steeped up to stand in front of the older blond. "You have to understand." She repeated. "We're different."

* * *

 **So, new chapter here.**

 _ **Darque: A whole load of gore and blood and Shinobi awesomeness!**_

 **Raven: You've been looking forward to this for ages.**

 _ **Darque I have. Anyways, look forward to more Shinobi awesomeness! Things get complicated from here (I think) cause we need to match timelines with story ideas and stuff, so updates might be a little slow.**_

 **Raven: Then again, don't trust us when we say things like that, so meh...**

 _ **Darque: If you have any ideas, leave them in a review!**_

 **Raven: We need inspiration.**

 **Read and Review!**


	8. Chapter 8: Of Crucio and the Ministry

_**Chapter EIGHT**_

The first of the Horcruxes they managed to track down was in the possession of a woman named Dolores Umbridge. After a while of scouting around, they found out that she had been a professor in Hogwarts for a while, and even the Headmaster for a short period of time.

They decided on a couple of possible courses of action, but was yet to find the possible time to do anything.

Another major meeting was going to be held soon, and this time, every single Death Eater who was a part of the Inner circle was summoned to Malfoy manor. Itachi noted the security measures and the forced atmosphere as he and Neji positioned themselves at the gates of the manor. They ran the faces of the guests through the images of the Death Eaters they had gone through the previous day and let them in one by one.

The recently escaped Death Eaters looked curiously at them, for they seen the Shinobi but had never actually met them, while others, who were now used to their presence simply walked past them.

Sakura and Shikamaru were stationed within the house, and the two of them planted themselves on either side of the Dark lord. Theodore Nott, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle arrive alongside their fathers. They stared wide eyed at Itachi and Neji while they barely gave them a second glance. However, they didn't stop to say anything either, and let their father's lead them into the house.

Once the last of the Death Eaters had arrived, Itachi sealed the gates off and the two of them joined Sakura and Shikamaru by Voldemort's side.

Voldemort glanced over the Death Eaters gathered before gesturing with his hand towards Itachi. The Uchiha leaned forward. "Antonin Dolohov and Thorfinn Rowle are missing." He reported.

Voldemort narrowed his eyes. "Go find them." He ordered.

Itachi bowed swiftly and made a gesture towards his teammates.

"Not within the manor." Neji said, Byakugan eyes gleaming in the dim light.

"Out, then." Itachi nodded. "Come." He body flickered out of the room and his teammates quickly followed. They found the two a while later, knocked out in a cafe. Itachi checked their pulses and Sakura confirmed that they were alive.

They wasted no time in dragging the two back to the manor.

* * *

The Shinobi's first experience with the Cruciatus Curse was when they had returned with the unconscious Death Eaters and had the misfortune of reporting to Voldemort what they thought had happened.

Until then, all they had known came from books and stories. They had also known it seemed to be Voldemort's favorite spell to perform on prisoners and Death Eaters alike.

The Dark Lord must have received more bad news earlier during the meeting they had missed or something, and he was in a particularly bad mood.

Voldemort's hand vanished for a second before he drew a wand.

Itachi's hand was at his pouch before Voldemort had even pulled his hand out of his robe, but he stopped himself last second. He shot his teammates a warning look just before the curse hit him.

An intense, excruciating pain shot through him and for a second, his knees threatened to give way.

Out of instinct, his Sharingan came to life and he struggled to deactivate it.

"Itachi!"

Sakura had dropped the weapon she had summoned at Itachi's warning, but she quickly moved towards him. She directed her glare at Voldemort, green eyes full of concealed anger. "Stop!"

Neji grabbed at Sakura's arm to stop her but she shook him off. Shikamaru moved forward at the same time.

Itachi felt the pain come to an abrupt halt just as a soft gasp reached his ears. He struggled to stay on his feet and saw a flash of pink, indicating that Sakura had stepped in front of him.

'Inner!'

'On it.'

Immediately, Sakura felt something dark and deep reach out towards her. As it swallowed her up, the pain ebbed away, though it felt more like forgetting rather than vanished. She felt limp within her own body, and though she could move her limbs, she felt empty and detached.

Soon, she couldn't feel any pain as her Inner temporarily killed her pain receptors.

From the corner of her eye, she could see the red light of the Cruciatus Curse, but she didn't feel the pain.

Slowly, she got used to the empty feeling and she straightened. She turned and met Voldemort's surprised and pleased gaze challengingly, though her own emerald eyes was void of any emotion.

The Dark Lord stopped the curse and Sakura immediately felt the pressure of the spell vanish.

The Voldemort let out a laugh as he eyed Itachi and Sakura, then Neji and Shikamaru, who had positioned themselves over their teammates. "Perhaps you are more than impressive spells." He said. He turns away, and the dismissal was obvious.

None of the shinobi addressed the shocked silence within the room. Neji and shikamaru both stood a respectful distance away and simply watched as Itachi straightened himself with a graceful air around him. Sakura did the same, and it was easy to recognize the superiority they held and the way they carried themselves as something children from respected clans were taught the moment they could walk.

Albeit missing the usual sharpness, the shinobi respectfully swept their robes to the side and body flickered out of the room.

* * *

Draco, like the rest of the people present, watched the Shinobi vanish into mid air, speechless with shock.

"Did they just withstand Crucio without screaming?" Theodore asked him quietly. "On their feet?"

Draco nodded. He saw flashes of all the things he had seen the Shinobi do. They could split the earth, control their own shadow and breath fire. However, he knew both from experience as well as sources that the Cruciatus curse was not just any pain bringing curse.

He knew the four knew of it, and yet, Sakura had stepped in front of Itachi to take the curse.

He found himself not listening as Voldemort continued talking as though nothing had happened and he noticed this with a sudden bout of fear, but luckily, Voldemort didn't ask him any questions.

Finally, Voldemort leaned back, apparently finished talking. Draco caught his father sending him a nod and noted the dismissal. He glanced over at Theo, Greg and Vincent and realized that they had also gotten the same signal.

He got to his feet and bowed low to the Dark Lord before he lead his friends out of the room. The moment the doors had closed behind Theo, who had been at the back, Draco slumped, taking a bunch of deep breaths.

"You...okay?" Theo asked, not really sure of what to say.

"Yeah." Draco forced himself to swallow. "I'm fine." He straightened and out of habit, looked around.

"Now what?" Vincent asked.

"We wait until we're called to serve." Draco said, quoting the words he often heard people say. "Until then..."

"Can we eat?" Greg asked quietly.

Draco glanced over at Theo and when the Nott shrugged, Draco nodded. "Why not?"

He led his schoolmates through the house when a certain turn one caught his eye. He paused and looked down the corridor, noting that it was empty. He couldn't hear anything either.

"Draco?" Theo called.

"Nothing." Draco said, the word automatic. "Come on. This way."

At the kitchen, Draco hesitated, then asked for two cups of water. He watched Greg and Vincent forget themselves for a while and begin asking for food. He waited until he was feeling relatively annoyed before snapping. "We're going." He said curtly. He glanced over at Theo who had just stood there the whole time. The Nott raised his hands in mock defeat. He sighed and turned back to the two boys. "Fine. Stay if you want."

He gripped the two cups and turned, swiftly leaving the kitchen with Theo at his heels.

"Where are we going now?" Theo asked. "I want to visit the library-"

"I don't think you would." Draco said. "It's the Dark Lord's office." He thought of the mercenaries and the time they spent in the library, but didn't bring it up.

"Then where are we going?" Theo pressed.

"We're visiting my..." He trailed off. "My friends."

"Friends?" Theo once again raised his hands. "Okay, okay. Friends, got it."

Draco nodded curtly and sped up. He turned to the corridor he had stopped at earlier and stopped in front of one of the biggest guestrooms in the manor.

Draco glanced at the cups in his hand and wordlessly passed one to Theo. The boy frowned but took it.

Draco took a deep breath and knocked.

* * *

The pain came the moment her Inner slowly drew away her control. Sakura stumbled mid step and Shikamaru was there in an instant. "You okay?" He asked.

Sakura let out small whimper and felt her knees buckle. Shikamaru managed to catch her around the waist and she spent few seconds hanging like a limp doll.

"Feel sick." She said. "The pain was so great that there are lingering aftereffects."

Beside her, Itachi was leaning heavily of Neji. His eyes were half closed and he was breathing heavily, but Sakura could see the tenseness in his shoulders. She had managed to remain unaffected to most of the pain while Itachi had taken it head on. He must be feeling worse.

"That hurt." Sakura whined softly.

"Why did you stop us, Uchiha?" Neji asked.

"He is our client." Itachi replied. Neji opened his mouth, eyes burning with subtle anger, but Itachi spoke over him. "We cannot have him suspecting us."

At this, Neji closed his mouth. They arrive at their room a while later. The moment Sakura landed on her bed, she curled into the covers and buried her nose in the pillow. Perhaps this was why the mattresses and pillows in the wizarding world were so soft. It was to prepare for the aftereffects of some painful curse or another.

Neji placed Itachi on the empty space beside her. The Uchiha placed a shaking hand over his eyes and took a deep breath. Sakura saw him visibly relax and she followed.

Neji and Shikamaru sat down on the chairs nearby.

"That was the Cruciatus Curse." Shikamaru said after a while.

Itachi nodded and Sakura opened her mouth. "It lives up to its name, I guess." She smiled a little. "Inner got rid of most of the pain, but when she left, there are still lingering traces of pain." She winced a little. "Okay, maybe more than traces, but yeah."

Just then, there was a knock on their door.

"If it is another mission summon from Voldemort, I'll kill him." Neji muttered, then moved to open the door. He blinked and eyed their surprising visitors. "Hello, Draco." He nodded at Theo, who stood behind him with another cup in hand, the first in Draco's tight grip.

Draco looked around nervously before turning back to the Hyuuga. "Can we...come in?"

Neji glanced over his shoulder at Shikamaru, who shrugged. "Of course." Neji stepped back, Hyuuga upbringing of inviting guests into one's house coming back. "Please, do come in."

Draco took Theodore's cup and did so. He held up the cup of water he was holding. "I was wondering it they were thirsty..." He didn't meet Neji's eyes.

Neji's gaze softened a little. He took the offered cups. "Thank you."

* * *

Theodore slowly followed Draco into the room.  
Draco had looked hesitant but he could tell that the Malfoy was very comfortable with the hired mercenaries. He slowly returned the nod of greeting Shikamaru sent his way and sat down on an unoccupied bed, next to Draco.

Sakura and Itachi were both lying on the bed opposite theirs but they slowly sat up and gratefully took the cups of water. Sakura quickly gulped down half of it while Itachi took small sips.

After a while, Sakura drew the cup away from her lips and turned towards them, a smile on her face. "Thanks, Dragon." She said. She turned her smile to Theodore. "You too, Theodore."

Draco nodded. "No problem." He snapped his fingers a few times, before looking away. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"Of course." Sakura smiled brightly. "Well, not fully, but we'll be fully recovered in a bit."

Theodore gathered his courage to ask the question that had been bugging him for a while. "So you guys were working for the Dark Lord this whole time?" He asked.

Itachi nodded. "Yes."

"Oh." Theodore trailed off, unsure of what to say.

"What now?" Neji asked.

"Nothing." Itachi said. "We just wait until we get another calling."

Neji frowned a little at this and sat back down on the chair he had previously been occupying.

"What about you guys?" Sakura asked, once again turning to the two purebloods. "Is the meeting over?"

Draco shook his head. "I guess they're going to discuss 'adult stuff'."

Sakura grinned.

Shikamaru lazily rolled his neck, cracking it. "Shogi?" He asked no one in particular.

Sakura shrugged. "I don't like pink frogs anyways."

Shikamaru scoffed and bought out a scroll. He summoned the Shogi set and proceeded to set it up.

Maybe they could squeeze in a game before Voldemort called them back.

"Would you like anything?" Neji asked.

Draco shook his head. "Not really. Can we just...stay here for a while?"

Theodore noted that he was included in the 'we', but he didn't really protest. He sort of understood why hanging around these four seemed to help the boy relaxed.

Not only that, but he felt safe. He saw Itachi pull out a scroll from nowhere. Deciding not to question where it had come from, for he now knew just how deeply their secrets were buried, he decided to question him about its content instead.

Itachi looked up. He blinked, then gestured for the Nott to come closer.

The Uchiha showed him the scroll he was currently reading. "Theories." He said. He saw the boy's eyes light up at the word and he moved a little. "I could...translate a little."

Theo slowly sat down and Itachi turned back to his scroll.

Halfway through the game, a sudden thought hit Sakura. "Dragon?"

The blond looked up from where he had been messing around with his wand. "Yeah?"

"Do you happen to know a Dolores Umbridge?" She asked.

Draco winced at the name and glanced over at Theo. "Yes."

"Who is she? What was she like?"

"She's a member of the ministry." He said. "She also taught DADA and was Headmaster when Dumbledore..." He trialed off again. "When Dumbledore was fired."

"This was a year before our arrival." Sakura stated.

Draco nodded in confirmation.

Shikamaru was deep in thought, and no one could tell if he was thinking about the game of shogi or the information he had just learned.

However, they were soon interrupted by the arrival of an house elf. "The Lord would like your presence."

Sakura narrowed her eyes and glanced over at Itachi.

"Already? That's pretty quick." Theodore said.

"I'll go." Neji offered. He raised his hand when Itachi opened his mouth. "You need to recover." He added, then quickly vanished in the direction of the meeting room. He reappeared a few minute later, eyes narrowed. "We have a job. One of the Death Eaters brought some news and he wants us to check it out."

"News?" Shikamaru asked. "Did he say how urgent it was or how dangerous it would be?"

"Just the usual scouting." Neji said. "I believe Shikamaru and I can handle it."

Itachi nodded after a short moment. "We'll leave it to you."

He received three nods.

"By the way," Shikamaru casually leaned over the shogi board and moved a piece. "Check." He sent Sakura a lazy smirk.

Sakura scowled at the bard as though it had done her some personal offence and clicked her tongue. "Dang."

"Come on, Nara." Neji called.

Shikamaru nodded. Without another word, the two of them vanished in a puff of smoke.

"So it really is into thin air." Theo murmured. "No trick?"

"It's just super fast travel." Sakura said. "So fast that you can't see it."

Draco sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Will they be okay?" He asked.

"Course." Sakura said confidently. "It's Shika and Neji." However, the smile was gone from her face. Itachi nudged her with his shoulder when the pinkette lifted her hand and inspected it. She clenched her fist. "Even my chakra feels numb." She muttered. "I'll heal us when it stops."

Itachi hummed softly.

"So who are you really?" Theodore asked. "And you look way too young to actually be sixteen or seventeen."

"Tachi's nineteen." Sakura said. "Neji's fifteen...Shika's and I are thirteen...Yeah."

"That's a pretty big range." Theodore said, not knowing what else to say. Age didn't seem to be affecting their job, or mission, or whatever they were doing under Voldemort.

"Shika and I were in the same class during Academy." Sakura said. "I've lived with Tachi since I was six? And I'm good friends with his brother, who's our age. Neji and I are...you could say similar?" She shrugged. "Besides, we're all good at what we do. It's natural to put the best together." She grinned, then shot Itachi a look. "Well, Team Seven's still better, but we're pretty awesome too."

Itachi nodded, simply going along with it.

Sakura stretched. "So, Dragon, Theodore, are you guys ready for school?" She asked.

"Call me Theo." Theodore found himself saying. "Saying 'Theodore' all the time must be a mouthful."

"Mkay, Theo." Sakura grinned. "So, are you guys ready for school?" She repeated, successfully managing to change the topic of their conversation.

* * *

Once Sakura was sure her chakra had stopped going haywire, she healed herself of any lingering pain, then did the same with Itachi.

Just in time too, for a House Elf soon came to get them.

Sakura slowly pulled herself off the bed and placed both feet firmly on the ground. She shuffled around a little then smiled when pain didn't shoot up her limbs.

Draco was watching her, as though she would collapse any second. "Are you okay?" He asked.

Sakura nodded and waited for Itachi to get to his feet. "Perfectly fine." She smiled reassuringly at the boy.

Itachi and Sakura led the Juniors back into the office when another House elf came to tell them of their summoning. They once again ignored the ever growing looks of shock boring into the backs of their heads and took their places on either side of Voldemort's throne and listened as he named Severus Snape the new Headmaster, then Amycus and Alecto Carrow the position of Deputy Headmaster, then spoke to them regarding the new curriculum he wanted them implement.

All in all, none of the really understood why they were supposed to be there.

Neji and Shikamaru returned a little before dinner was served and reported their findings to Voldemort in the library.

Itachi and Sakura were waiting for them in their assigned guest room.

Upon entry, Neji handed them a newspaper article. Itachi read over the page Neji had offered him and narrowed his eyes.

"She's serving as the under secretary to the minister." Neji said. "She's in charge of muggle registration and prosecution."

"So the only way to get to her is to infiltrate the Ministry." Shikamaru sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Do you have a map or something?"

Sakura skipped up to them, grinning. She shoved a parchment in Shikamaru's direction.

"When's our next free?" Shikamaru asked.

"School's coming up." Itachi said, a small frown visible on his face. "We'll be busier than ever."

Sakura rolled her neck. "Why don't we see what we need do first?" She suggested. "Then we can split accordingly."

Shikamaru sighed but nodded. He opened the map and and grabbed a scroll. "How troublesome."

* * *

On the first day of the new term, Team Riki took the train to Hogwarts. Draco seemed pretty nervous, and Team Riki decided that he had the right to be.

Fearful glances were being sent towards Slytherin as a whole, and Team Riki also understood this. No one knew who to trust. The absence of the 'Golden Trio' seemed to add to everyone's nervousness and fear.

This seemed to escalate when a group of Death Eaters stopped the train and stormed in, looked for traces of Harry Potter. None of them were wearing masks and they ignored the stares they received as they looked through the cabins.

The Shinobi pointedly ignored them. It wasn't long before they left as quickly as they had come.

"After everything, of course Harry Potter wouldn't be here." Neji murmured.

Itachi shrugged.

* * *

Once they had gotten off the train, Sakura noticed something she hadn't paid much attention to the first time round.

When they had first come to Hogwarts, her mind had been full of 'mission', 'client' and 'target'. However, this time, she was more relaxed on the inside and the skeletal reptile like horses fondly reminded her of her summons.

Truth be told, it was Drco that had first stopped, eyes widening in shock.

Sakura had simply stopped to ask what was wrong, only to realize what exactly he was looking at.

"What's that?" She asked.

"Never seen them before." Draco said, looking as though he wasn't really there. "But after everything..."

Neji, who had been standing beside her and had stopped when she did, glanced over and raised an eyebrow. "Whoa." He said, in a 'how-the-hell-did-we-miss-that?' kind of way.

Itachi watched the people around them ignoring them, as though no one could see them. "Skeleton horses." He summed up.

"I think they're cute." Sakura said. "Like Kurogarasu."

"Yes, because skeleton birds that wear masks and shed their feathers randomly and can grow into the size of a small house is cute." Neji said without missing a beat.

Shikamaru sighed. "How troublesome. What are they anyways?"

"Those are Thestrals." Someone said.

Sakura turned around and saw Theodore casually making his way towards her. "Hello, Theo." Sakura waved.

"Hi." He replied, then nodded in Draco's direction.

The Malfoy nodded back. "Hey."

"So, Thestrals?" Sakura pressed.

Theodore nodded. "Long story short, only people who've seen death can see them."

Draco blinked. "We leant that in Care of Magical Creatures." He said.

Theo nodded. He glanced at the Shinobi from the corner of his eye, then turned his gaze out to the other students, who were eying them warily. "Most people can't see them, and it makes them nervous when you can."

Sakura ran a hand over the Thestrals nose, reminded of the deer in the Nara forest. "Oh." She hummed. "You can see them too?"

Theodore nodded but didn't elaborate and Sakura didn't press for any more information.

Shikamaru drew back at a Shinobi worthy speed when one snapped at his hand. "I agree with Hyuuga." He said. "They are not cute."

"Cute?" Theodore asked curiously.

"Sakura thinks they're cute." Draco supplied, and the two Slytherin boys turned to look at Sakura skeptically.

"What?" She asked defensively. "They are cute."

Itachi placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder, then shot his two male teammates amused looks. "We can question Sakura's definition of 'cute' later." He casually dodged the elbow Sakura sent his way. "Come on, we'll be late."

* * *

Snape's appointment as Headmaster was met with a lot of disapproval from both the professors and the students, but no one had any real power to oppose the change.

However, the first years were still placed dutifully into the new houses and everyone was silent as Snape named Horace Slughorn as the new Slytherin head of house, then reminded the students of the places they shouldn't go and the Quidditch tryouts.

He then brought up the changes to the Muggle Studies course and introduced Alecto Carrow as the new teacher. He then named Amycus Carrow as the new DADA teacher and named the new spells that were now open for the students to learn.

Ginevra Weasley, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood restarted 'Dumbledore's army' and spent their time trying to protect the student's from Amycus Carrow, who had quickly begun pushing his limits with what he could do to the students.

She had heard rumors about the twins, but Sakura had been walking with Itachi, Draco and Theodore from a Slytherin-Ravenclaw shared classes when she heard a commotion, which led to her actually witnessing the two in action. She glanced at Itachi, who nodded swiftly. She then at the other two from the corner of her eye and noted that they didn't seem to notice anything. She used her chakra to check out the distance and noted that it was a little too far for non-shinobi to hear it.

"Dragon."

Draco stopped mid complaint about some homework or another and turned to her, recognizing the tone Sakura's voice had taken on. "Yeah?" He asked cautiously.

"Would you and Theodore return to the Common room first?" Itachi said. "There seems to be something we need to take care of."

Draco nodded. He sent Theodore a look that silenced any questions the Nott may have had and the two kept going without pressing.

Sakura used her Byakugan to checked the location of the two Slytherins a few seconds later and confirmed that the two really were heading to the common room and not trying to find out what they were trying to do or anything. Itachi's hand casually lowered to the hidden weapon concealed in his robe.

They came across the Carrow twins hovering over a young boy, who looked like he was in his first or second year. She eyed the boy, whose eyes were barely open and his limbs were lying limply at his sides, and blinked curiously at the Carrows, who had looked up upon her entry and had yet to say anything. "What're you doing?" She asked.

"Ah, Miss Haruno." Alecto cackled. "Why don't you run along now?"

It had been Voldemort's orders that none of them were to expose the Shinobi under any circumstances.

However, Sakura stayed planted in her spot. "But what are you doing?" She repeated, knowing that if it came down to it, the Carrows would have to retreat.

"What a teacher does to their student none of your business, is it?" Amycus sneered.

"But he's hurt." Sakura narrowed her eyes a little. "Why don't you run along?"

Amycus opened his mouth, probably to say more, but Itachi's voice cut in. "Students have to stick together, then, don't they?" He drew his left sleeve back, an action he did before he drew his wand. His eyes narrowed a little and is onyx eyes appeared even darker than usual.

Amycus and Alecto shared a short glance before they quickly darted off. "They run like ducks." SHe commented offhandedly once they were out of hearing range.

She looked down at the boy and gently shook him. "Hello?"

The boy's eyes opened just a little and he blinked a few times. He opened his mouth, about to say something, when Itachi grabbed her shoulder. "Incoming." He said.

Sakura stretched out her own senses and felt Ginevra and some other student making their way rapidly towards them.

"That's our que to leave." Sakura placed a hand on the boy's forehead and ran some healing chakra through him. She sensed him begin to relax and got to her feet. The two Shinobi departed before anyone could see them.

* * *

The next day, they were approached by Neville on their way to breakfast. "I heard you warned off the 'Ducks'." He said quietly.

Sakura blinked, and a small smile bloomed on her face. "We did." She said.

Neville scratch the neck of his neck in a way that reminded Sakura of Naruto. "I...see..." He trailed off. "Tristan says thanks." At Sakura's confused look, Neville elaborated. "The boy you saved."

Sakura's eyes brightened. "Tell him no problem." She said.

Pretending not to notice Neville's calculating look boring into her back, Sakura turned back to her team and walked off to their next class.

* * *

It was Itachi's summon's report that forced Team Riki to make their next move.

With no time to risk wasting on planning or preparations, Itachi and Sakura quickly departed for the Ministry building at the first signs of dawn, leaving behind shadow clones in their place in order to not arouse suspicion with Neji and Shikamaru covering for them. Sakura summoned Kurogarasu and concealed by a strong genjutsu, they flew towards their location. They could not risk Harry Potter and his friends leaving their safe house to infiltrate the Ministry building.

Being kept updated by Itachi's crow on the wereabout of of the Golden Trio, Itachi and Sakura snuck into the Ministry office. They had kept an eye on a certain woman and they knew what the Golden Trio In reply, itachi held up his wand. ge was planning the trials of a handful of people accused of doing something or another and they found the woman sitting in her office going through some papers.

Hidden by another genjutsu, the two of them snuck into the office when some man brought another stack of reports without a problem.

"How are we going to make sure the Golden trio don't attempt a break in after we take the locket?" Sakura asked. "They won't know that the Umbridge woman doesn't have it anymore."

Itachi glanced around the room, eyes landing on the newspapers being printed. "We'll cause a commotion." He said. "If they're smart, it should warn them off from trying anything."

"And if they're not?" Sakura asked.

"They should be." Itachi said. "But if it comes down to is, a genjutsu should do."

Sakura grinned at this. "I never knew genjutsu could be so useful." She said.

Itachi smiled softly at this.

* * *

Dolores Umbridge didn't know what hit her.

Sakura flicked a coin and it hit the door, falling to the floor with a loud clatter. The woman looked up from whatever she had been reading and stood up, moving towards the door. Itachi appeared behind the woman in a blink of an eye and had knocked her out with a harsh blow to the back of the neck.

The woman was out without a sound.

The two of them moved the woman back to her desk and positioned her so that it looked like she had fallen asleep. Itachi then unclipped the locket and sealed it.

had brought along. "So, henge or do you want to try that replication spell thing?" She asked.

In reply, Itachi held up his wand, said "Gemino." then gave it a small wave. He nodded when the sparks of the spell settled, then placed the fake around the woman's neck.

"As perfect as always." Sakura smoothly got to her feet. "Let's go?"

Iatchi followed. "One more thing." He summoned the can of spray paint Sakura had brought along. He eyed the name 'NARUTO' written on the side and glanced at the pinkette.

"Before he left with the Toad Sannin, Ruto said I have free to access to his...supplies." Sakura shrugged. "It was useful, right?"

Itachi shook the can, then activated his Sharingan. "Any ideas?"

"Henohenomoheji." Sakura replied instantly. Itachi eyed her for a while before he sighed.

And then, he proceeded to draw the world's most balanced, perfect henohenomoheji.

Sakura let out a small cheer as Itachi drew in the last line.

The next day, the article that occupied the front page of the newspaper was about the possibility of a new gang of sorts. The 'gang mark' was also there as well, and as Shikamaru inspected it, Itachi preened under Sakura's pleased look.

Team Riki made sure a copy was delivered to Harry Potter and his friends.

Sakura secretly stored away a copy as well. This was Naruto worthy.

* * *

 **So, here's chapter eight...**

 **Meh...**

 **Yeah...**

 _ **Darque: Hey, guess what?**_

 **Raven: What?**

 **Darque: I just read something very interesting.**

 **Raven: Oh, what's that?**

 _ **Darque: So basically, each person has 2 parents, then 4 grandparents then 8 great grandparents and the numbers keep doubling with each generation, right?**_

 **Raven: Yeah.**

 _ **Darque: If you keep tracing back, by the time you hit 35 generations back, we'd have more ancestors than the whole populations of the planet. You're the smart one. Get it?**_

 **Raven: That means I'm related to you.**

 _ **Darque: Is that all you can say?**_

 **Raven: Oh the horrors.**

 **Read and Review~**


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